
__ . 



Copyright S?_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: 



READING 
IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



BY 

THOMAS H. BRIGGS, A.B. 

OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, 
THE EASTERN ILLINOIS STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 

AND 

LOTUS D. COFFMAN, A.B. 

SUPERVISOR OF THE TRAINING SCHOOL, 
THE EASTERN ILLINOIS STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 



REVISED AND ENLARGED 



CHICAGO 
ROW, PETERSON & CO. 



v^ 



Copyright, 1908 

By Thomas H. Briggs and Lotus D. Coffman 

Copyright, 1911 

By Thomas H. Briggs and Lotus D. Coffman 









©CI.A2S9490 



PREFACE 

No attempt has been made to set forth in this 
book a novel theory of reading. But the best that 
is known and used by well trained and thoughtful 
teachers is here reported in some detail. The authors 
have drawn upon their own experience, both in 
teaching and in training others to teach, their 
reading, and their observation for every fact stated 
or device explained. Nothing is merely theoretical. 
Yet, it will hardly happen that any one reader, 
unless he have put long study on the subject, will 
find nothing new in the book. Even if he should, 
an orderly setting forth of things already known 
brings them to mind afresh and usually from another 
point of view. 

It is not expected that the book will prove equally 
helpful, of course, to all teachers. But the authors 
have aimed to be simple and direct and soundly 
practical. Teachers are urged to get the grasp of 
the entire second or third part, in whichever they 
are especially interested, before introducing the 
ideas of any one chapter into the schoolroom; for, 
although one point at a time should be emphasized 
in the teaching, the ideas in the various chapters 
are interwoven and are to a great extent interde- 
pendent. 



PKEFACE 



The problem of silent reading has been set forth 
as fully as experiment and experience seem to jus- 
tify. The authors believe, however, that this is an 
open and inviting field just now in education, and 
that more saving of time and efficiency can be 
secured through teaching children to read rapidly 
and retentively than through any other one means. 
But it is doubtful if further discussion and sugges- 
tion than are here given would prove helpful before 
the teachers themselves progress further in the 
matter. 

The plan of the book is easily comprehended from 
the table of contents. Part One treats of the sub- 
ject in a most general way. The first chapter con- 
sists largely of quotations from men who have 
thought deeply and expressed themselves effect- 
ively ; the second is historical of texts and methods. 
Part Two presents the theory and methods for the 
first three years, carefully avoiding discussion of 
mooted questions. It was the original plan to give 
separate parts to reading in the intermediate and 
in the upper grammar grades ; but the work so over- 
laps that it finally proved impracticable to divide 
it. Hence, Part Three sets forth the theory and 
gives detailed suggestions for teaching reading in 
the upper five grades. 

The obligations of the authors are many. Where 
there are direct quotations, acknowledgment is made 
in a footnote; but it is impossible to acknowledge 
the many minor points taken, often unconsciously, 
from books and magazines. The authors have read 



PKEFACE 5 

every book and article on the subject that was 
accessible. The fact that they found nothing else 
covering just the field in which they were interested, 
encouraged them to prepare and publish this book. 

Acknowledgment must be made here of the assist- 
ance afforded by many friends, most of it coming 
from their regular class room work. To the critic 
teachers of The Eastern Illinois State Normal School 
especial obligation is due. Miss Anna H. Morse 
has been especially helpful in the preparation of the 
material used in the chapters on primary reading 
methods. To Mr. Forrest Sumner Lunt acknowledg- 
ment is made for assistance in the simple and excel- 
lent breathing and articulation exercises on pages 
162-4. " 

T. H. B. 
L. D. C. 

Charleston, Illinois, July, 1908. 

PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION 

In response to repeated requests, the material on 
the teaching of literature has been considerably ex- 
panded. The original single chapter has been en- 
tirely rewritten, so that it now contains twice as 
much as formerly, and three chapters of special ap- 
plication of the principles set forth have been added. 
A few other changes, the need of which became 
manifest as the book was used by various state read- 
ing circles, have been made. 

T. H. B. 

L. D. C. 
March, 1911. 



CONTENTS 

PAET I 

Introduction 
chapter pack 

I. The Importance and Kinds of Beading 9 

II. The History op Reading Methods and Texts.... 24 

PAET II 
Primary Reading 

III. The Primary Period 36 

IV. Primary Reading 45 

V. A Typical First Lesson 51 

VI. Oral Reading 55 

VII. Silent Reading 62 

VIII. Word Drills 70 

IX, Phonics 79 

X. Dramatic Reading 92 

XI. Seat Work 105 

XII. Pictures Ill 

XIII. Memory Work 128 

PART III 

Intermediate and Grammar Grades 

XIV. The Intermediate and Grammar Grade Periods . . . 140 
XV. Position and Criticism 145 

XVI. Articulation and Enunciation 149 

XVII. The Use of the Dictionary 173 

XVIII. Literature and Reading 186 

XIX. Literature in the Elementary Grades 213 

XX. Literature in the Intermediate Grades 225 

XXI. Literature in the Grammar Grades 239 



8 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XXII. Sight Eeading 255 

XXIII. Silent Eeading 259 

XXIV. Synopses 268 

XXV. The Assignment 276 

XXVI. Dramatics 289 

XXVII. Memory Work 314 

XXVIII. The Direction op Private Eeading 318 



PART I 
INTRODUCTION 



CHAPTER I 

The Importance and Kinds of Reading 

It is unnecessary today to argue the advantages 
of reading. From being the possession of the few, 
regarded by the people as a form of black art, read- 
ing has come to be the heritage of the many. The 
man who can not read to some extent is now as rare 
as five hundred years ago he that could. By reading 
we satisfy our instant craving for current news, we 
read for the pleasure that literature affords, and 
we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors in all 
realms of knowledge. A librarian has said, "Take 
away our reading, and the observation possible to 
one man, with the thought it will awaken, may result 
in shrewdness, even profundity, but they can never 
give him breadth."* 

The Choice of Books 

As Tithonus was given one great gift without the 
wisdom to use it, in like manner many today have 

*Koopman: The Mastery of Books. 

9 



10 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

the ability to read without the wisdom to choose 
what to read, without the power to discriminate 
between treasure and trash. In his "Democracy 
and Other Addresses," James Eussell Lowell tells 
us of a Wallachian legend. 

"One Bakala, a good-for-nothing kind of fellow in his way, 
having had the luck to offer a sacrifice especially well pleas- 
ing to God, is taken up into heaven. He finds the Almighty 
sitting in something like the best room of a Wallachian 
peasant's cottage. . . . On being asked what reward he 
desires for the good service he has done, Bakala, who had al- 
ways passionately longed to be the owner of a bagpipe, seeing 
a half-worn-out one lying among some rubbish in a corner of 
the room, begs eagerly that it may be bestowed upon him. 
The Lord with a smile of pity at the meanness of his choice, 
grants him his boon, and Bakala goes back to earth delighted 
with his prize. With an infinite possibility within his reach, 
with the choice of wisdom, of power, of beauty at his tongue's 
end, he asked according to his- kind, and his sordid wish 
is answered with a gift as sordid." 

The application of this incident to the choice of 
books is evident. 

A scholarly love for literature after graduation 
is often a test among people of intelligent discrim- 
ination of the culture acquired by schooling. How 
can this taste be developed if the material to be read 
at home or studied in schools is low or vulgar, silly, 
above the child's enjoyment, or if he does not there 
acquire the habit of associating with books on 
friendly terms? It must be realized, too, that in 
the vast majority of cases opportunity and inclina- 



IMPOKTANCE AND KINDS OF BEADING H 

tion for reading for general culture ends with the 
period of youth. Euskin asks in "Sesame and 
Lilies": 

"Will you go and gossip with your housemaid or your 
stable-boy, when you may talk with queens and kings; or 
natter yourselves that it is with any worthy consciousness of 
your own claims to respect that you jostle with the hungry 
and common crowd for entree here, and audience there, when 
all the while this eternal court is open to you, with its society, 
wide as the world, multitudinous as its days, — the chosen and 
the mighty of every place and time? Into that you may 
enter always; in that you may take fellowship and rank 
according to your wish ; from that, once entered into it, you 
can never be an outcast but by your own fault; by your aris- 
tocracy of companionship there, your own inherent aristocracy 
will be assuredly tested, and the motives with which you 
strive to take high place in the society of the living, measured, 
as to all the truth and sincerity that are in them, by the 
place you desire to take in this company of the dead." 

What Are Bad Books? 

With these fine words ringing in his ears, as- 
suredly one desires to fit himself to enjoy the com- 
pany of the aristocracy of letters. Just as surely 
he desires to avoid the bad. The question What are 
bad books 1 is excellently answered by the Reverend 
Dr. Robert Collyer: 

"If when I read a book about God, I find that it has put 
Him farther from me; or about man, that it has put me 
farther from him ; or about this universe, that it has shaken 
down upon it a new look of desolation, turning a green field 



12 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

into a wild moor; or about life, that it has made it seem a 
little less worth living, on all accounts, than it was; or about 
moral principles, that they are not quite so clear and strong 
as they were when this author began to talk; — then I know 
that on any of these five cardinal things in the life of man, — 
his relations to God, to his fellows, to the world about him, 
and the great principles on which all things stable center, — 
that, for me, is a bad book. It may chime in with some lurk- 
ing appetite in my own nature, and so seem to be as sweet 
as honey to my taste ; but it comes to bitter, bad results. It 
may be food for another; I can say nothing to that." 

Development Through Reading. 

Moreover, one should make it a practice to read 
something a little beyond him, something that will 
make him stretch every faculty of his intellect. A 
book containing this kind of material should lie con- 
stantly on the desk, and one should open it every 
day or two, not when the mind and the body are 
alike wearied, but when both are fresh and ambi- 
tious for some task worthy their strength. The book 
suggested in the following quotation is undoubtedly 
too abstruse for the vast majority of common school 
teachers. In fact, we all differ so widely that it 
would be difficult to recommend any book that 
would serve as a good mental gymnasium for each 
of us. Our own experience can guide us. Where is 
some book which is recommended heartily by those 
whose judgments we trust and which we have diffi- 
culty in understanding? Choose that, if you have 
or can acquire interest in the subject of which it 



IMPOETANCE AND KINDS OF EEADING 13 

treats. If we make mere drudgery of it, we shall 
almost surely fail to gain the blessing. Don't try 
too much of it at a time; think over what you 
read; and keep at it! 

"Let a student read one page of Kant's 'Critique of Pure 
Reason' when his mind is fresh, concentrating his full atten- 
tion upon it," says Eosenkranz. "His first reading will not 
suffice to give him much insight. But if he repeats his read- 
ing of this one page every week for six months, he will dis- 
cover within himself not only new ideas but new faculties. 
While this progresses he will be delighted to find that other 
less difficult works, which, however, had" formerly required his 
full strength to master, have now become quite easy. It is 
like substituting for the flame of the alcohol lamp that of an 
oxyhydrogen blowpipe : the difficulties melt away before his 
new power of analysis disciplined on the dry and abstruse 
philosophical work. By this exercise the youth overcomes 
that worst of intellectual obstacles — the belief that what he 
can not understand at first trial is permanently beyond his 
powers: — 'My mind was not made for that kind of work.' 
The motto of the schoolroom should be, 'Each may master the 
deepest and wisest thoughts that the human race has trans- 
mitted to us.' Repeated attacks by concentrated attention 
not only master the abstruse problem, but leave the mind 
with a permanent acquisition of power of analysis for new 
problems." * 

Pace in Reading 

Even after we have selected our reading, choos- 
ing with care and discrimination, we find that we 
read the various kinds differently, — that is, the 

* Eosenkranz : Philosophy of Education, p. 89. 



14 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

trained reader does. An anonymous contributor 10 
the Atlantic Monthly (July, 1902) has given some 
exceedingly wise points on "Pace in Reading." He 
declares that good reading depends on "good will, 
concentration, and the habit of dispatch," condemn- 
ing heartily "the formation of the newspaper habit," 
"the habit of mind which makes it possible for men 
to spend an evening in going through motions." 
This is a habit that is too often exemplified about us 
to demand explanation. 

"The good reader," he continues, "takes all reading to be 
his province. Newspapers, periodicals, books, old and new, 
all present themselves to him in their proper perspective; 
they are all grist to his mill, but they clo not go into the 
same hopper or require the same process. . . . Milton 
may be read in words and lines, Macaulay in sentences, 
Thackeray in paragraphs, and Conan Doyle in pages." Fear- 
ing that he may be misunderstood as confusing pace in reading 
and skimming or skipping, the contributor declares : "Skim- 
ming and rapid reading are different processes, but skimming 
is at times a good thing, too ; even skipping becomes, on occa- 
sion, a sacred duty. . . . For skimming implies cream, 
and skipping, a foothold somewhere." 

The principles laid down in this most suggestive 
article are, however they appeal to common sense, 
relatively unrecognized in the teaching of reading. 
Teachers, when they thought at all of the impor- 
tance of reading with different paces, have, it seems, 
either feared to meddle with anything so dangerous 
and novel or else they have thought that experience 
would bring the ability to each reader. Unfortu- 



IMPORTANCE AND KINDS OF READING 15 

nately it does not always do so, and many a man 
has wasted days and days in conscientiously going 
through a process that could have been variously 
modified with great profit to himself. These prin- 
ciples have been utilized here and there through 
this book, though not as extensively as they should 
be. Much experimentation must be done before one 
can speak authoritatively on the subject. Training 
in pace in reading and in silent reading are open 
fields that invite every earnest teacher who would 
make a real contribution to his pupils as well as to 
education in general. 

Kinds of Reading 

Before improving the pace or anything else in 
reading, we must have an understanding, an agree- 
ment as to what reading is. And the very first 
thing we find out, upon considering the question, is 
that there are several sorts of reading just as there 
are at least two kinds of reading matter. 

"There is first," says DeQuincey, in his Essay on Pope, 
"the literature of knowledge, and secondly, the literature of 
power. The function of the first is, to teach; the function 
of the second is, to move. . . . The first speaks to the 
mere discursive understanding; the second speaks ultimately, 
it may happen, to the higher understanding or reason; but 
always through affections of pleasure and sympathy." 

There are the non-literary and the literary read- 
ing, the silent and the oral, the elocutionary and the 
dramatic. Perhaps the following divisions and defi- 



16 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

nitions will prove helpful. Denotative reading, 
exact reading for sense only, such as we give the 
literature of knowledge, is of two kinds, silent and 
oral. The first is merely getting the thought from 
the printed page through the eye; the second, get- 
ting the thought from the printed page and express- 
ing it by the voice. Here, "words, like window 
panes, are things to look through, not things to 
look at." 

Connotative reading, the reading of implication, 
of suggestiveness, likewise, is of two kinds, appre- 
ciative and representative. This we give to the 
literature of power. The first is getting the thought 
and emotion from the printed page and, when oral, 
expressing them by the voice. Literary reading 
should, until good habits are formed, be almost en- 
tirely oral. Representative or dramatic reading is 
getting the thought and emotion also from the 
printed page and expressing them by voice and 
action. 

These kinds of reading merge one into the others 
more or less, of course, but chiefly less. Beading at 
one extreme is a mere medium through which the 
barest thoughts come. It extends continuously, 
however, to another extreme, which ranks with the 
highest art. Perhaps there are fewer really excel- 
lent readers of this latter kind than singers, both 
dealing with that most exquisite and subtle instru- 
ment, the human voice, as a means of translating 
thought and emotion. And if the teacher keeps 
clearly in mind which kind he aims to secure, much 



IMPORTANCE AND KINDS OF READING 17 

confusion in the reading lesson will disappear. 
These kinds of reading, it will be found, are kept 
quite distinct throughout this book. 

Denotative Reading 

In the denotative, non-literary reading of a book 
one may be said to have read it when he has found 
out from the book what he did not already know. 
The useless and senseless plodding through page 
after page of matter already known to the reader 
or of matter that does not concern his end and aim 
at the time, should in every manner ' possible be 
discouraged. Let a boy know what he is reading 
for, and then show him how to find his goal. 

Connotative Reading 

And when reading literature, one needs even 
more advice and direction to prevent waste of time. 
These are given in some detail in the pages of this 
book. Here let us cite a few points made by Pro- 
fessor Henry VanDyke. He divides readers of liter- 
ature into three classes somewhat fancifully named 
"the simple reader," "the intelligent reader," and 
"the gentle reader." 

The "simple reader," he says, is he who reads to occupy 
spare time. The best advice to him is negative. "Do not 
read vulgar books, silly books, morbid books. Do not read 
books written in bad English. Do not read books simply 
because other people are reading them. Do not read more 
than five new books to one old one." 



18 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

"The intelligent reader," he defines as one who "wants 
to know, and to whom books are valuable chiefly for the accu- 
racy of the information which they convey." If his thirst 
for information he keen enough, this reader will not wander 
far afield. Professor Brandes has even said, "Better far read 
ten books about one thing or about one man than a hundred 
books about a hundred different things !" But, as another 
writer has it, "The best reading is both intensive and exten- 
sive; one reads a little of everything, and a great deal of 
some things." 

Professor VanDyke's "gentle reader" is one "who wants to 
grow, and who turns to books as a means of purifying his 
tastes, deepening his feelings, broadening his sympathies, and 
enhancing his joy in life. . . . He is looking for the 
books in which the inner meanings of nature and life are 
translated into language of distinction and charm, touched 
with the human personality of the author, and embodied in 
forms of permanent interest and power. This is literature." 
And one can learn to read it well only by early, wise guidance, 
wide experience, and much practice in interpretation. "We 
have not read an author," says Carlyle, and this is especially 
true in literature, "till we have seen his subject, whatever it 
may be, as lie saw it." 

Reading and Thinking 

Young readers should not forget, moreover, the 
wise words of John Locke : 

"Beading furnishes the mind only with material of knowl- 
edge ; it is thinking that makes what is read ours. We are of 
the ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves 
with a great load of collections; unless we chew them over 
again, they will not give us strength and nourishment." 



IMPORTANCE AND KINDS OF READING 19 

And this recalls Lord Bacon's famous passage in 
his Essay of Studies : 

"Bead not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and 
take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to 
weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be 
swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, 
some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, 
but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with 
diligence and attention." 

The young reader is inclined to put all his reading 
in the first or second classes; but only by this 
chewing and digesting can he make himself wise 
through reading. 

Practical Suggestions 

"Among practical suggestions to those who would read for 
profit, I have found nothing more pertinent," says Mr. James 
Baldwin,* "than the following from the posthumous papers 
of Bryan Waller Proctor. 'Always read the preface of a 
book. It places you on vantage ground, and enables you to 
survey more completely the book itself. You frequently also 
discover the character of the author from the preface. You 
see his aims, perhaps his prejudices. You see the point of 
view from which he takes his pictures, the rocks and impedi- 
ments which he himself beholds, and you steer accordingly. 
. . . Understand every word you read; if possible, every 
allusion of the author, — if practicable, while you are reading ; 
if not, make search and inquiry as soon as may be afterward. 
Have a dictionary near you when you read; and when you 
read a book of travels, always read with a map of the country 

* The Booklover, pp. 69-71. 



20 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

at hand. Without a map the information is vague and transi- 
tory. . . . After having read as much as your mind 
will easily retain, sum up what you have read, — endeavor to 
place in view the portion or subject that has formed your 
morning's study; and then reckon up (as you would reckon 
up a sum) the facts or items of knowledge that you have 
gained. It generally happens that the amount of three or 
four hours' reading may be reduced to and concentrated in 
half a dozen propositions. These are your gains, — these are 
the facts or opinions that you have acquired. You may inves- 
tigate the truth of them hereafter. Although I think that 
one's general reading should extend over many subjects, yet 
for serious study we should confine ourselves to some branch 
of literature or science. Otherwise the mind becomes con- 
fused and enfeebled, and the thoughts dissipated on many 
things, will settle profitably on none.' " 

Brandes on Reading 

George Brandes, the Danish critic and man of 
letters, has written so wisely in his essay ",On 
Reading" that we have taken many fine sentences 
from it. Instead of interspersing them throughout 
this chapter with similar ideas, we have kept them 
together, thus giving a very bare outline of the 
essay. It should be read in its entirety.* 

"There is no best book, the ideal varying with the com- 
munities, and the individual, and even in the individual at 
different times of life." 

"Few people can be said to read at all, or enjoy reading, 

* From Brandes' On Reading. Copyright 1907 by Duffield & Com- 
pany. 



IMPORTANCE AND KINDS OF READING gl 

or get any good out of it. Out of a hundred people able to 
read, ninety generally read nothing but newspapers, — a species 
of reading which demands no exertion. Most people, for that 
matter, read without any particular attentiveness. Perhaps 
they select reading-matter which does' not deserve any par- 
ticular attention. What wonder, then, that they forget what 
they read?" 

"In the domain of reading . . . it is regarded as a 
changeless rule that one time is no time at all, that a man 
who restricts himself to one reading of a good book knows 
little about it." 

Why Should We Read? 

"We are not to believe that we can attain to any wisdom 
simply by devouring books." Books "set thoughts in motion, 
which men seldom do. They are silent when questions are 
not asked of them; men are seldom so discreet. . . . 
And books are seldom so inane as people. One feels fre- 
quently like applying to the mass of humanity those words 
of Goethe : 'If they were books, I would not read them.' ' ; 

"We ought also to read so as to add to our own experience 
those of other men, greater and more competent than 
ourselves." 

"Eeading has power to make us keener and more susceptible 
to the value of things." 

"If reading affords no more than innocent entertainment, 
it is worth while in the wearisome and monotonous exertion 
of daily life." 

"We do not demand of an author that he should work to 
make us better. All that we can demand of him is that he 
work conscientiously, and that he have it in him to teach us 
something." 



22 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

What Should We Read? 

"There are two things one would wish for newspaper 
readers : — that they might read their favorite papers with 
some exercise of the faculty of criticism; and be not so 
satisfied with newspaper reading as to incapacitate them for 
any other." 

"It is perhaps best," inasmuch as we are not prepared to 
understand the classics, written for former ages, "to begin 
with books written for those now living." 

"Find books good for you, as you find your friends." 

"A book which is really to instruct must embrace either 
a single country, or a short, definite period." "The infinite 
in itself is not immensely much; frequently it is best revealed 
by symbolic treatment of some significant detail." 

"Dangerous books are not only those which speculate in 
the youthful reader's sensual impulses, or appeal to his idle- 
ness or frivolity, but those also that represent base and low 
things as admirable, or disseminate prejudices, and throw 
a hateful light on liberal mindedness, or the pursuit of 
freedom." 

"It is a sorry superstition that leads people involuntarily 
to cherish a certain respect for earnestness and erudition that 
wearies them. Wearisome books discourage people from 
acquiring knowledge." 

How Should We Read? 

It should be our aim "to grasp clearly the meaning which 
the author has sought to convey through the characters pre- 
sented in it. We reach through the book to the soul that 
created it." 

"We ought preferably to read so as to comprehend the 
connection between an author's books." 



IMPOETANCE AND KINDS OF EEADING 23 

"We ought to read, too, so as to grasp the connection be- 
tween an author's own books and those of other writers who 
have influenced him, or on whom he himself exerts an 

influence Of course this mode of reading is not for 

every one." 

"We ought . . so to read as to appropriate from 

our reading the moral lesson that lies hidden behind it." 

"When we read so that we personally assimilate what we 
have read, we feel this is the central point in the course of 
circumstances, is the origin of actions, the central point of 
character, the central point of will, the central point of 
passion, the Archimedean spot whence the earth can be 
moved." 

"Why should we read, then? To increase our knowledge, 
divest ourselves of prejudices, and in an even greater degree 
become personalities. What should we read? The books 
that attract us and hold us fast, because they are exactly 
suited to us. These are the good books for us." "That book 
is good for me which develops me." 

"How ought we to read these books ? First, with affection ; 
next, with criticism ; next, if possible, so that our reading has 
a central point, from which we may guess or descry connec- 
tions, and lastly, with the aim of fully understanding and 
making our own the moral lesson to be found in every event 
narrated." 

"A whole world can thus open out for us in a single book. 
We may become acquainted through it with some parts of 
human nature, wherein we shall not only recognize our- 
selves — changeable and rich in alterations and transforma- 
tions, — but find also the unchangeable being and eternal laws 
of nature. Lastly, if we read attentively, we have the power 
to add to our moral stature, in so far as we vividly feel those 
things which ought to be done or left undone." 



CHAPTER n 

HlSTOKY OF READING 

Reading, as a subject, has varied retrospect. The 
methods involved in the compilation of text-books 
and in the teaching of the subject, have fluctuated 
between the extremes of form and thought. At 
times thought has been subordinated to form and 
word-study emphasized; at other times, and yet 
today, form is subordinated to thought and inter- 
pretation is exalted. Text-book makers have drawn 
upon every conceivable field for material and appar- 
ently have considered all equally acceptable for 
reading purposes. Religion, ethics, nature, geog- 
raphy, history, science, mythology, and literature, 
each has made its contribution, but the transition 
from the religious to the more strictly literary 
reader has been slow and laborious. 

TEXT-BOOKS 

The development of reading as a branch of study 
began with the Reformation. This wide-spread 
movement necessitated, on the part of the common 
people, a familiarity with the Bible, and as a result 

For much of the matter appearing in this section the writera 
have drawn heavily upon Carpenter, Baker and Scott: The Teach- 
ing of English; Huey: The Psychology and Pedagogy of Beading; 
Eeeder: Educa. K. 18, 225-226. 

24 



HISTORY OF READING 25 

reading and writing were introduced into the ele- 
mentary curriculum and training in them became 
general. The books used for this purpose, of course, 
contained only extracts from the Bible. They were 
wholly religious in character. The German word 
for primer means little bible. This primer appeared 
in 1419. 

In the A. B. C. book published by Schulte in 1532, 
an attempt was made to adapt the material more 
to the children's interests, and this notion received 
a decided impetus when Basedow (1723-1790) advo- 
cated the teaching of reading through play in eating. 
The children were rewarded with sweetmeats for 
their success in learning German or Latin through 
games. A single quotation shows how Basedow put 
this plan into general use. ' ' The children must have 
breakfast and it is not necessary for any child to 
eat the alphabet more than three weeks. The cost 
of shaping the dough into letters is less than one- 
half penny daily for each child."* 

Early Methods 

The earliest teaching of reading in England was 
probably done with the abacus. This was an arrange- 
ment of the first nine letters of the alphabet in 
Christ-cross-row, afterwards called a chriss-cross- 
row. When these were mastered, other letters were 
given. As the letters were learned in every possible 
direction, the device proved laborious in the extreme. 

* Quoted by Huey, Chapt. XIII, pp. 241, 242. 



26 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

The abacus was superseded by the hornbook, 
which came into existence about 1450. "The horn- 
book consisted of a square, short-handled wood or 
paste-board paddle, upon which was pasted a sheet 
of paper containing small letters and capitals, the 
Arabic and Roman numerals, as many syllables as 
could be crowded into the space, together with the 
Lord's Prayer. The paper was protected by a 
sheet of transparent horn."* Sometimes the edges 
were protected by strips of brass. 

This was followed by the A. B. C. catechism. All 
the reading material for the catechism and for the 
classes above it was taken from the Bible. The first 
class above the catechism was called the Psalter 
class; the second, the Testament class; the third, 
the Bible class. 

The New England Primer 

In 1690, the catechism was supplemented by the 
New England Primer, which really marked the first 
effort at secularizing the schools. This book "con- 
tained the alphabet, lists of vowels and consonants, 
lists of syllables, of words for spelling arranged 
according to the number of syllables; rhymes for 
illustrative wood-cuts for the letters in order, moral 
injunctions, prayers, catechisms, etc., for the chil- 
dren, including "Now I lay me down to sleep. "t 
Some of the verses accompanying the wood-cuts and 
used to teach the alphabet were: 

* Reeder: Educa. R. 18, 225, 226. 

fHuey: The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, p. 244. 



HISTORY OF READING 27 

In Adam's fall 
We sinned all. 



Noah did view 

The old world & new. 



Peter deny'd 

His Lord and cry'd. 



Zaccheus he 

Did climb a tree 

Our Lord to see. 

The Webster Boohs 

Following the decline of this primer, which 
occurred after the revolution when the colonies 
were awakening to their new life and its responsi- 
bilities, came, in 1783, the Webster Speller, which 
combined the ideas of the primer, speller, and 
reader. No other school book has ever had so exten- 
sive a sale in America as this, more than 60,000,000 
copies having been sold up to 1895 and even at the 
present time it is still in use. 

This speller was followed in 1785 by the Webster 
reader, really the first American school reader. It 
contained many dialogues, narratives, biographies, 
and was intended to instruct "in the geography, 
history, and politics of the United States." In its 
pronounced tendency to secularize the reading mate- 
rial, it corresponded very closely to Der Kinder- 
freund, published in Germany in 1776 by Frederick 
Eberhard Rochow. 



28 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Among other readers which appeared during the 
last quarter of the eighteenth and the first quarter 
of the nineteenth century were: Lindlay Murray's 
English Reader, published in London in 1799, which 
had its lessons "classified under the following 
headings: narratives, didactic, argumentative, 
descriptive, pathetic, promiscuous, dialogs, and 
public speeches ' ' ; the Columbian Orator ; the Amer- 
ican Preceptor by Caleb Bingham; the Columbian 
Class Book in 1825, containing many descriptions of 
strange countries ; ancf the National Reader by John 
Pierpont, which was the first to have many selec- 
tions by American authors. 

Keagy's Pestalozzian primer in 1826 marked some 
change in the attention given to method as it began 
to emphasize the teaching of reading by object les- 
sons. The earliest effort at specialization came in 
1824, when Daniel Adams published his Agricultural 
reader. It was followed three years later by Rev. 
J. L. Blake's Historical reader. 

Series of Readers 

After this, readers began to appear in series of 
two or three books each. The series usually con- 
sisted of an Introduction, a Middle book, and a 
Sequel. The primer and speller were sometimes 
added to complete the series. The Putnam series in 
1828 was the first to attempt some work of the dic- 
tionary type, that of explaining difficult words and 
phrases, and the Worcester series of the same year 
was the first to advocate the word-method of teach- 



HISTOEY OF READING 29 

ing. The McGuffey six book series, the pioneer of 
its kind, which appeared in 1850, dealt with the 
widest range of subject-matter and probably had 
the most extensive sale of any series ever published. 
As soon as the custom of adopting a series became 
fairly well fixed, supplementary readers began to be 
introduced, the Swinton series, in 1880, being the 
first. 

Since its publication, there has been a bewildering 
number of short-lived series, more or less scrappy 
in character, thrust upon the market. But out of 
the mass of seemingly contradictory opinions that 
have prevailed in regard to the selection of material, 
the notion is gradually gaining ground that only 
material of real literary worth is desirable, and 
that it should be presented, as far as possible, in 
the form of literary wholes rather than by frag- 
ments. 

METHODS OF TEACHING EEADING 

There is much evidence to show that the race was 
in the pictograph stage more than eight thousand 
years ago. Of course gesturing preceded picturing 
as a form of communication, but the alphabet was 
born of the picture. At first there were almost as 
many schemes for writing as there were different 
nations. However, all writing began with picture- 
making and all reading with picture-books. Picture 
writing, in its infancy, assumed many peculiar 
arrangements, but there was always some effort at 
order. A temporal succession was usually expressed 



30 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

in the series of pictures, and often there seems to 
have been some effort to show the lapse of time 
between events by the space between the pictures. 

There were at least three distinct stages in the 
evolution of pictures as a means of communication. 
At first they simply portrayed objects and were the 
crudest sort of sketches. Next, they represented 
ideas and feelings. Instead of picturing an entire 
animal, a picture of its foot-print sufficed. War, 
danger, hunger, sorrow, and the like, each now had 
some appropriate symbol. A little later, pictures 
became more conventionalized. A single sign was 
always used to represent the same thing. The papy- 
rus represented knowledge; the pipe, peace, etc. 

But these symbols were still arranged in many 
forms strange to us. They were read from right to 
left, from left to right, in vertical columns, or some- 
times they were placed in solid squares and the 
papyrus had to be turned to read each succeeding 
line. Even after the alphabet came into use it was 
not until the eleventh century that a sensible and 
usable system of separately written words was 
invented. 

Origin of the Alphabet 

It took the race a long time to discover that all 
words are uttered by a few sounds. The idea 
dawned very gradually. The first step was taken 
when certain simplified picture-characters came to 
suggest the spoken names of ideas which they sig- 
nified. They thus became true phonograms. While 



HISTOEY OP BEADING 31 

it was a distinct advance to discover that a character 
conld represent a sound, it did not become really 
valuable until it was found that these characters 
could be combined to represent the sounds of syl- 
lables. This was the rebus-stage in the history of 
the race and marked a transition to the invention 
of the alphabet and word structure. Every child 
still passes through this stage. Our compound 
words show it. This rebus-form of writing was 
early utilized to express whole sentences. The Chi- 
nese, much to their discredit, have never risen above 
this plane. 

The next step was taken when primitive races made 
use of the principle of aerology, the breaking up of 
a word into its constituent elements. This was the 
beginning of the alphabet. The exact history per- 
taining to the origin of the alphabet is detailed and 
voluminous. From an hieroglyphic alphabet con- 
sisting of many characters, the race gradually 
evolved out of more than two hundred and fifty 
recorded alphabets through the Egyptians, Phoeni- 
cians, Greeks, and Romans, a syllabary consisting 
of forty-four syllabic sounds and an alphabet of 
twenty-six characters. 

It must be clear that because of the way the 
alphabet developed, learning to read by letters was 
one of the very first methods employed. It was put 
into practice in Greece and Rome and was until 
quite recently in general use. The child was first 
taught the letters, then syllables as ah, eh, then 
words, and finally sentences. 



32 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Phonics 

The first effort at relieving the drudgery of the 
alphabetic method by phonics was made by Ickel- 
samer in 1534. "He separated the letters of the 
alphabet into classes distinguished by the position 
of the vocal organs, and taught first those that, like 
o and a, were simple and distinctive." The mne- 
monic associations used were unique. For instance, 
b was represented by the picture of a bleating lamb ; 
s, a hissing serpent; z, a buzzing insect; and w 
resembled a crawling worm. In mastering a word 
a child was expected not only to image the written 
or printed letter and its appropriate sound, but the 
animal which suggested the sound. "For example, 
if the word Marz (March) was to be learned, the 
pupil first analyzed the word into its sounds ; m, that 
of a cow beginning to low, a the sound made by 
the goose, r the snarling dog, and z the twittering 
of the sparrow." 

The Orbis Pictus, published by Comenius about 
1658, has been accredited with being the first effort 
at the word-method of teaching reading. Comenius 
himself says, ' ' The very looking upon the thing pic- 
tured suggesting the name of the thing will tell the 
child how the title of the picture is to be read." 

The Sentence Method , 

Probably the next step in advance was made by 
Olivier, who held that reading should be taught by 
the sentence-method. According to him, the sen- 



HISTORY OF READING 33 

tence to be read should be spoken by teacher and 
pupils. Then the words were to be divided into 
syllables and these small parts were to be pro- 
nounced, reducing or slurring the consonant sound 
as much as possible. After the elementary sounds 
were learned, the letters were taught. The book 
which was taken up a little later contained the sen- 
tences the children had already partially learned 
and further drill was given for thoroughness. 
Stephani's method, adopted for general use by the 
Prussian empire in 1841, required the mastery of 
the sounds of the letters, followed by simple easy 
advancement to words. It firmly and finally estab- 
lished the sound-method over the letter-method. 

Attempts at Correlation 

In the early part of the nineteenth century Grafer 
introduced the writing-reading method. It was held 
that writing after reading tends to greater care in 
noting the form and order of letters and words. 
"Its opponents asserted that it doubled the difficulty 
of learning to read by requiring two things to be 
learned at once; its supporters, that the interest 
and self-activity of the child made the learning 
process easier." 

Jacotot (1770-1840) is responsible for the analytic- 
synthetic method. His notion was that we should 
proceed from the whole to the part, from the known 
to the unknown, or from the word or sentence to the 
letters. The children were required to memorize the 
sentences, then copy them, and were not questioned 



34 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

upon the content until after ten or more lessons had 
been taught. Word-imagery rather than sound or 
letter-imagery was the end secured. Every effort 
was made to fix the form of the word in the memory. 

In America, the alphabetical method was made 
prominent by the Worcester Primer, 1828. The 
word-method was put forward and stoutly defended 
in the Brumstead readers, 1840-1843, and since then 
has had numerous supporters. 

The phonic method was early introduced in 
St. Louis, Washington, New York, Boston, Fall 
Eiver, Mass., and Burlington, la. Probably the 
leading advocate was Dr. Edwin Leigh, who pub- 
lished his plan in 1864. His scheme involved 
the following steps: Represent the object by 
printed form and through conversational exercises, 
spell the word by sound, associate the sound word 
with the printed word, note that each character of 
the printed word stands for a particular sound of 
the spoken word, teach the name of each letter of 
the printed word, note the distinction between the 
letter-name and the letter-sound, review and have 
word spelled both by name and by sound, as soon 
as enough words have been learned arrange them 
to represent a thought. 

A Combination Method 

A combination of the word and phonetic methods 
was begun by Ward in 1894 and his readers are 
even now having a wide sale. Mr. Ward gives the 
gist of his plan in this language, ' ' The word method 



HISTOEY OF READING 35 

is at first used as principal, because of its value in 
developing a habit of reading thoughtfully, and 
afterwards as auxiliary, to remedy the shortcomings 
of the phonetic method and increase the stock of 
phonograms. The phonetic method, which is intro- 
duced by easy stages during the ascendancy of the 
word method, finally becomes itself the principal 
means of growth and progress." A detailed state- 
ment of the method is found in the Ward Readers, 
published by Silver, Burdett & Co. 

Along in the early seventies of the last century, 
many educators began to claim that since the unit 
of all language work is the sentence, we should 
begin to teach reading by the sentence method. Many 
different plans and combinations with the other 
methods have been tried in recent years, but no one 
has been universally accepted. In the pages which 
follow, we believe that there is unfolded a safe, 
sensible plan, one that has stood the test of expe- 
rience. 



PART II 
PRIMARY READING 



CHAPTER III 

The Primary Period 

The child, on entering school, stands on the 
threshold of a new phase of life wondering, listen- 
ing, ready to have his imagination attuned to the 
finer influences. It is a most significant and 
impressive time for him. His mind is not filled 
with many perplexing questions and he is prone to 
believe all that he hears and sees. He is curious, 
groping, searching, and reaching out for the 
unknown and at the same time busy constructing 
imaginary situations. His whole disposition is to 
follow after nature, to do those things for which 
he feels a need rather than pursue conditions set 
up for him by others. The two words which sum- 
marize the distinctive characteristics of the primary 
period are imitation and imagination. 

Imagination and Literature 

Although the latter of these will receive a more 
exhaustive discussion farther on, a word or two 

36 



THE PEIMAEY PEEIOD 37 

about it here may not be amiss. No better material 
can be found for stimulating this power of mind 
than literature. As soon as the child has acquired 
the power to read, and even while he is acquiring 
it, he should not be sent on a long chase after the 
phantoms and vagaries found in cheap literature 
produced by indifferent writers, but to "the rich 
deposit of the centuries — which by its simplicity, its 
self-reliance upon elemental truths of the soul, its 
homely instincts, its free spirit of wonder and belief, 
appeals directly, surely to the imagination of the 
child."* Feed him only on the best. Through the 
already wide-open gates of child-life let in the life- 
giving floods. Give him through choice books a 
multitude of friends who will never desert him and 
of whom he will never be ashamed. The best literary 
works have so much imagination concentrated in 
them that they appeal to and stimulate this activity 
in the child. 

Imitation 

The other factor, imitation, is well worthy of our 
serious attention just now. While the adult is prob- 
ably never free from its influence, the child at six 
is largely controlled by it. His imitation may be 
either unconscious or conscious, but more commonly 
the former than the latter. He is indebted to it for 
his language, habits, mannerisms, many of his move- 
ments, social notions, moral and religious concep- 
tions, and probably even self-consciousness itself.f 

•Scudder: Atlan. 73, 252. 

tRoyce: Studies of Good and Evil, p. 182. 



38 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Imitation is the basis of originality. It is not 
possible for one to add something characteristic to 
his copy nntil after he has imitated two or more 
copies. Indeed, he cannot even be selective of his 
copy nntil after he has done this. Then, too, orig- 
inality is shown in the fact that while many may be 
following the same form, say in the copy-book, no 
two copies are exactly alike, the individuality of each 
is expressed in his copy. 

Imitation is thus the basis for enriching life "by 
adding to it the lives of others."* It enables one to 
repeat in himself the conduct, the thinking, and feel- 
ing of his fellows. Before the true judgment, insight, 
and discrimination have been cultivated, there is a 
marked tendency in children, and in primitive 
peoples, slavishly to imitate all details; but when 
these qualities have been progressively strengthened 
and attention is given to the consequences, then the 
person seeks to appropriate only those qualities 
which can be utilized in new adaptations. He has 
then reached the plane of self-emancipation, but, 
unquestionably, he has not arrived at this station in 
his development when he enters school. In school 
training it is important to lift the pupil above the 
low plane of mere imitation or copying, but it must 
be remembered that the former is basic to the latter. 

The existence and operation of this principle in 
child life is clear even to casual observers ; still its 
application to the problem in hand may not, at first 
sight, seem so obvious. We have already stated, 

* Harris: N. E. A., 94, 637-41. 



THE PRTMAEY PERIOD 39 

and shall do so again and again, that thought-getting 
is the first essential in any kind of reading. If the 
thought is thoroughly understood, a pupil will usu- 
ally have no trouble in giving it oral expression. 
His rendering may not be the best possible, the most 
musical, or expressive of the subtler shades of 
thought, but it is essentially correct, and what is 
more important, it is his own. 

The Value of Tone and Infection 

There are times when the voice is unable to trans- 
late the thought to another's ear, however well it be 
understood. Many a cheerful, social man has a 
manner of saying "Good morning" that belies his 
whole nature. This is probably due to a bad or 
thoughtless habit. In other cases, the reader simply 
does not know how to use his voice to express what 
he has in mind. 

In the first act of Hamlet, for instance, when the 
ghost reveals to Hamlet that Claudius has murdered 
the king, Hamlet utters merely the one word "Mur- 
der." Now, to one who has studied the play, there 
is little doubt concerning what lies back of the word. 
Hamlet has long suspected his uncle: and through 
this one word he expresses his horror at the reve- 
lation, his grief for his father, his determination to 
avenge the crime, and some satisfaction that his sus- 
picion has been confirmed. How, then, should the 
word be uttered? Most readers and actors despair 
of conveying all the emotions through the word, and 
concentrate their efforts on translating one of them 



40 HEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

to the hearers. But the emotions are all there : and 
if those who have a good command of their voices 
should once hear a master reader utter the word 
with the fulness of its meaning, they too could, by 
imitation, approximate his success and translate 
what is already clear in their own mind. 

Under such circumstances, imitation is not a bad 
thing ; indeed, it is one of the very best things. The 
danger lies, of course, in a failure to insist on the 
child's first having the thought for himself, a thought 
which he thoroughly understands but may be unable 
to express vocally. The teacher must be sure, too, 
that her understanding of the thought and that of 
the pupil approximately agree, otherwise gross mis- 
understandings may arise and much effort be wasted. 
She must be sure, too, that the child has the vocal 
skill to express it satisfactorily. 

Setting Up Ideals of Reading 

All this is largely about the expression of litera- 
ture. The same thing is true to a less extent with 
our denotative material, — to a less extent because 
there is less room for variation. Some primary 
teachers who do not fear the effect of employing 
imitation have an excellent device that could be 
utilized at times even by teachers in the upper 
grades. When a child reads mechanically "I — see — 
a — dog — in — the — street," the teacher reads with 
proper inflection. "I saw a cat in the street," and 
then the child repeats his own sentence, using a 
similar inflection and phrasing. This can be done 



THE PRIMAEY PERIOD 41 

effectively in any grade, the teacher giving a good 
Tending of a sentence nearly parallel to the one the 
pupil has; misread, or making any variation what- 
ever in the .sentence form, provided she retains an 
illustration of the essential point. 

Another device for a similar end. to be used 
largely with pupils who are not so clever at trans- 
ferring a notion, is for the teacher to present sev- 
eral readings of the same sentence, readings that 
will each give a different turn to the meaning or 
shade to the expression, and have the pupil choose 
from these the one that best gives his idea of the 
meaning. 

The Teacher's Reading 

Too much can not be said in insistence upon the 
teacher's setting a good model in reading of what- 
ever kind she does in the schoolroom. Just as 
reading can not be taught well if the pupil is held 
to a good standard only in the reading class, so the 
effect of the teacher's admonitions and precepts is; 
greatly weakened unless she illustrates them herself 
all through the day. It is possible, of course, for a 
person who can not sing to teach vocal music; but 
how much better if he can practice what he teaches ! 

The teacher of reading should have an intelligent 
understanding, a quiet, firm voice, clear articulation. 
correct pronunciation, and a good manner in every 
thing she reads before her school, from the Bible 
lesson in the morning to the last assignment in the 
afternoon. 



42 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Setting a good example does not mean that the 
teacher will resort to exhortation or rank didacti- 
cism to bring about the desired result. She will not 
be constantly haranguing her class, wasting valuable 
recitation time, by urging them with such charac- 
teristic injunctions as, "Now, children, read it this 
way," "Listen to me and then read it in the same 
way," "Why, Mary, didn't you hear mef Try it 
again," and so on ad nauseam. How much better 
and wiser it is for her to be a good model at all times 
instead of practicing her precept perhaps only 
during the reading lesson ! 

We are not denying the necessity of occasionally 
calling the attention of the children to a correct or 
corrected pronunciation, to a more appreciative or 
meaningful reading, to grammatical misconstruc- 
tions or inaccuracies of statement. Example should 
be reinforced by precept, but the efficacy of precept 
increases in value with the age of the child. In 
primary work, the former is of the more vital and 
far-reaching significance. Far better is it for the 
teacher to read here and there as the recitation pro- 
ceeds apparently because she can not help it, because 
she is so alive to the story, than to assume an air of 
pseudo-dignity, and, after inviting the children to 
listen to her, to pronounce the language in an unnat- 
ural tone, one probably wholly unadapted to the 
spirit of the selection. By reading occasionally her- 
self in the proper way she keeps up the standard, 
which, if the children are permitted to do all the 
reading, is sure to retrograde and likely to be lost 



THE PRIMARY PERIOD 43 

sight of entirely, just as it often is in writing. There 
pupils, beginning with an excellent copy at the top 
of the page and using each succeeding line they 
write as the copy, finally produce one that is almost 
wholly unlike the one at the top; the standard of 
excellence, in most cases, diminishes as the writing 
proceeds. 

Pupils Set Models 

The teacher must unconsciously in reading be the 
pattern, and the needs and abilities of the children 
must afford her almost intuitive knowledge of the 
means to be employed. As soon as possible some 
secondary pattern work may be done by some of 
the better pupils. 

Undoubtedly there is little place for conscious imi- 
tation in reading except in the drill phases of it, 
which really are only accessories to the deeper pur- 
pose. In these, however, there may be an abundance 
of individual, sectional, and class imitation carried 
on consciously to relieve physiological defects and 
to acquire proficiency in the mechanical features, or 
the so-called tools, of reading. 

This principle implies that good models, whether 
they be material or the more potent ones of per- 
sonality, be placed before the child. Why has so. 
much effort been made in educational circles in 
recent years to secure well-lighted buildings, neat 
and clean floors, tinted walls decorated with master- 
pieces of art, beautiful playgrounds, and the like 
but that the right kind of material models may be 



44 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

constantly before the child? Surely that teacher 
whose spirit is alive, whose interest in the thing she 
is doing is real, and who, in the primary grades, can 
bring to her "aid a great company of invisible 
spirits, interpreters to her as well as to the child," 
will be most stimulating and most worthy of being 
followed. 

If she has vivid and beautiful imagery, a soul satu- 
rated with the spirit of art and music, if she clothes 
her thoughts in clear, choice language, tells her 
stories with appropriateness, reads as she should, 
and pronounces and articulates in almost faultless 
style, the effect upon her pupils cannot be estimated. 
These are the ideal qualities of the primary teacher, 
never realized completely in any but always to be 
striven for by all. In proportion as they are attained, 
the responsibilities of the day become lighter, the 
tasks easier, the duties more welcome, and the 
mechanical and routine features of teaching, here- 
tofore dry and uninteresting, rich in devices and 
fruitful in results. 



CHAPTER IV 

Primary Reading 

The fundamental purpose of reading cannot be 
fully realized so long as the primers and first and 
second readers are nothing but dilutions of litera- 
ture. Many of the readers are mere scrap books. 
It is true that books today contain fewer didactic 
essays and forensic speeches than the old readers 
did, but most of them are still made up of the pick- 
ings of literature. Huey emphasizes this point as 
follows : 

"Next to the beauty of the primers, the most striking thing 
about at least three-fourths of them is the inanity and dis- 
jointedness of their reading contents, especially in the earlier 
parts. No trouble has been taken to write what the child 
would naturally say about the subjeet in hand, nor indeed. 
Usually, to say anything connectedly and continuously as 
even an adult would naturally talk about the subject. The 
language used often shows a patronizing attempt 'to get down 
to the child's level' and results in a mongrel combination of 
points of view and of expression that is natural neither to an 
adult nor to a child. How a child could talk such stuff is 
naturally beyond comprehension, and reading it can scarcely 
help developing that drawling, wooden, monotone so generally 
found in the reading class. The child loves to get some- 



46 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

whither in what is said, wants an outcome to the discussion, 
and has a persistence and continuity of thought that are con- 
stantly violated by such 'sentence-hash/ The actual aim that 
has guided in the selection and arrangement of most of the 
early reading-matter has been the development of the power 
to recognize and pronounce words." 

The Content of Primary Readers 

The study of words is not reading, but prepara- 
tion for reading. Children do not express them- 
selves in words, but in sentences. They do more 
than bind words together; they bind sentences 
together. Now reading can never possess continuity 
of expression except by observing the connectedness 
of sentences or the inter-dependence and unity of 
the thoughts. The test of sequence is found in the 
unified thought the reader and the auditor secure. 
If the sentences are scrappy, fragmentary, tell no 
story, there is no genuine interest in them. To be 
sure, it is far better to have several short sentences 
than one long one, but there should be some unity 
of thought running through the sentences. The first 
sentences given the children should be made up of 
words selected largely from the speaking vocabu- 
lary of the children. 

The material found in the readers should be con- 
nected, interesting, and stimulating — not interesting 
and stimulating to the adult, but to the child. From 
the very first he should study literature. The child 
poems and stories of the "Heart of Oak" books 
and "Hiawatha," the rhymes, jingles, fables, and 



PEIMARY EEADING 47 

the like, will insure active attention and vital 
interest. 

In these days of hurry, many urge the introduc- 
tion of numerous supplementary readers and 
primers. We shall have more to say about this in 
another place, but we do wish to emphasize now 
that those selections and stories children like will 
bear repeating many times. Too little is made of 
this factor of repetition in the lower grades. In 
their play children do the same thing over and over 
and they love to have a story told many times and 
to read repeatedly a selection that is rich in child- 
hood's fancy. If the material given them in their 
reading is worth while it will bear this sort of 
repetition. Children should not be asked to repeat 
that which is dry, uninteresting, matter-of-fact, or 
that which is of no permanent value. Start them 
out with fine material and they will return to it 
again and again from their own choice. 

The Purpose in Primary Reading 

The purpose of all training in reading, a thing 
never to be lost sight of, is the interpretation of the 
printed page with accuracy and a reasonable degree 
of rapidity. In addition to the principles set forth 
in the general introduction, three others, marking, 
in a way, stages of growth, are important. First, 
the purpose cannot be actualized without a mastery 
of the tools — the means of interpretation; second, 
the ability to interpret demands constant cultiva- 



48 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

tion; and third, increased skill in expressive utter- 
ance should accompany all reading. 

Considerable attention must be given in the pri- 
mary grades to learning how to read. But learning 
how to read is not reading. The drill or mechanical 
phases of reading should, in the main, be carried 
on apart from the reading lesson. Reading is a 
search for ideas and not a mere word recognition, 
the acquisition of a vocabulary. Reading is not the 
study of letters, sounds, or words ; it is not enuncia- 
tion, articulation, or pronunciation : these things are 
only means to it. The reading lesson has to do with 
interpretation and these mechanical phases should 
be at the minimum during the reading lesson. They 
should not be entirely lost sight of, but they are not 
to be emphasized during the reading period. To 
teach reading as a process of mechanics leads to the 
mere pronunciation of words with little or no appre- 
ciation of the sense. Drill work is necessary only 
so far as it aids in getting the thought. It will not 
do to spend weeks talking about reading and pre- 
paring for it. Power in it can be acquired only by 
doing it. Some assume to read by looking at words. 
What we should do is to read by looking through 
the words. 

Garlick declares that every school reader should 
embrace all the following principles : 

(1) It must be well printed and attractive, calculated to 
give pleasure; (2) it should impart some knowledge, and 
should not be too childish or silly; (3) it should be written 
in English, and not in the gibberish found in some of the early 



PRIMARY READING 49 

reading books; (4) it must be able to maintain interest: To 
do this, consecutive stories are perhaps the best for young 
scholars. Short, scrappy pieces should be avoided, as they 
kill interest. (5) The book must be progressive. Every 
lesson should contain a few new words, slightly increasing in 
difficulty. 

Essentials of First Lessons 

The first lessons in reading should make sure of 
a few vital things. The following points are of 
especial importance: 

1. The child should associate the written symbol 
directly with the thing symbolized. The method used 
involves the sentence method. The work in phonics 
which, concentrates the child's attention on form 
rather than on thought is not begun immediately, 
but when begun, it is for some time kept separate 
from the reading lesson. 

2. From the very first the child should look upon 
reading as a thought-getting and a thought-giving 
process. This implies, first, that the material used 
will, from the child's point of view, be worth thinking 
about, and second, that the oral reading will be done 
in sentences rather than in isolated words. The 
second suggestion presupposes the silent study of a 
new sentence before it is read aloud. 

3. Good reading necessitates rapid eye-move- 
ments, rapid recognition of not only words but 
phrases. 

4. Pupils should steadily show growth in power 
to recognize new words. Drill in phonics gives this 
needed independence. 



50 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

5. The voice and body should help to express 
thoughts effectively and appropriately. To aid in 
gaining freedom of expression, dramatization, dia- 
logue, and play of various kinds are used freely to 
help the reading, but are rarely introduced into the 
reading lesson itself except during the first weeks 
of school. 

6. Opportunities should be given for expressing 
the reading lesson by hand, in writing, picturing, 
and other forms of manual activities. 

7. As an aid to gaining a mastery of the language 
of choice reading selections, some judicious memory 
work should be required. 

The illustrative material which follows gives a 
running amplification of these principles. The first 
lesson is typical of those taught the first weeks of 
school. In such a lesson the child feels from within 
a certain necessity to read, such as has never been 
experienced by him before. He must do this to be 
"in the game." The stronger the desire to read, the 
easier the process of learning to read. Hence the 
teacher needs to stimulate and to give again and 
again life to the child's wish to "find out what it 
says. ' ' 



CHAPTER V 

A Typical First Lesson 

A typical first lesson in reading, in which the chil- 
dren learn to recognize several sentences and one 
isolated word, is given below. Such lessons as this 
are carried on daily during the first month of school, 
and occur frequently during the first two years. In 
most schools these are conducted at the same time 
with daily lessons in oral reading, which lead at once 
to the use of a primer, and in which from the begin- 
ning written and printed forms are used. The au- 
thors, however, think that these lessons in oral read- 
ing may be deferred with perfect safety and positive 
profit to the children until the fourth or fifth week. 

During this time the children will be trained in 
reading without the necessity of the teacher giving 
any extensive drills in pronouncing. They will be 
trained to recognize word forms through the eye. 
The shortest road through the symbol to the thought 
is emphasized in such reading. The number of les- 
sons which can be given, of the character here 
described, will depend entirely upon the resource- 
fulness of the teacher. 

Some plans require the learning of eighty, others 
of two hundred words, before the children are 

51 



52 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

allowed to do any actual reading. Such methods 
certainly can possess little intrinsic interest for the 
children. They must be more or less deadening. 
It seems far better to have the class really read 
something the very first day. In their reading, they 
will acquire a knowledge and soon a mastery of 
many words. No rule can be laid down as to the 
number of words the children ought to learn daily. 
They often recognize ten groups of words and three 
or four isolated words at the end of the second week. 
After this, the number of words they learn increases 
more rapidly than the number of wholly new sen- 
tences. 

To understand the explanation of the lesson given, 
it is necessary to keep in mind that every sentence 
is accompanied by the suggested physical activity 
on the part of the child or teacher, but the children 
do not pronounce any of the words written on the 
board. The teacher speaks those she cannot act. 

The best results will likely be secured if two 
twenty-minute lessons in reading are given each day, 
and, besides, a fifteen-minute period to work in 
phonics. 

The Lesson 

A big yellow ball is in sight. The teacher steps 
to the board and writes, speaking the words and 
sentences as she writes them the first time. The 
words below, which are in italics, are the ones which 
are written on the board. The others are spoken 
only. 



A TYPICAL FIRST LESSON 53 

Come to me, Euth. 

Come to me, John. 

Let us have a game of ball. 

Do you see a big ball any where about? 

You may get the ball. 

After the first time the teacher points to the word 
ball instead of speaking it. After she receives the 
ball, she sings a simple little melody : 




My ball, 



want 



^ 1 p d | r d|F-^=F 

cH 



two times, three times, four times, five times, six times. 

She bounds the ball rhythmically to John as she 
sings. 

At the conclusion of the song the teacher says, if 
it can be said truly, "John played well. Let us do 
this for him." And she writes the word clap upon 
the board and gives John the suggested applause. 

She next writes Come to me, and calls Lucile to 
her. She and Lucile play as before and at the close 
of the song she points to the word Clap, saying, per- 
haps, "I think we ought to do this," and joins in 
the applause herself. 



54 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

The word ball and the sentences Get the ball, Come 
to me, and Clap, are used again and again during 
the twenty minutes, until each child has had his 
attention centered upon them several times. He soon 
finds that he needs to remember what the strange 
marks say or else he is at a disadvantage in the 
game. 

As the children pass to their seats they touch 
"the name of the game we played" as they find it 
here and there among the words on the board. 

Another day the teacher will write the word sing 
on the board as she asks the children to join in the 
music. She will give the words rise and march, 
when the time arrives for the direction of these 
activities. 

Still later other games may be introduced which 
call forth such sentences as, Form a circle, Choose 
a partner, Ship, etc. 



CHAPTER VI 

Oral Reading 

In many schools oral reading is begun the first 
day or the first week, but according to the plan 
herein outlined it probably should not be begun 
sooner than the fifth weel: of school. Oral reading 
involves recognition of the words, thinking the 
thought, and experiencing the feelings of the author 
and the conveying of the same pictures, thoughts, 
and feelings to another or the arousing of sympa- 
thetic thought and feeling in the auditor. The child 
must have much training in thought-getting before 
he will be able even to approach this ideal. Silent 
reading must precede oral reading in time. Skill 
in thought-acquiring precedes skill in thought-con- 
veying. In those schools which attempt to teach the 
two from the start simultaneously, we frequently 
find a wooden, monotonous, halting pronunciation 
of the words. 

Conditions of Oral Reading 

The power of interpretation is cultivated and dis- 
played through oral reading. Of course, the exact 
nature or character of the interpretation varies with 
the kind of selection studied, but it is well to bear 

55 



56 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

in mind that drill work in the pronunciation of words 
is not oral reading. The power to make the lesson 
a vital part of one 's life experience is very different 
from the power of calling words. If the individual 
sees some organic unity in the details he reads about, 
sees through the mechanics of the page the pictures 
and the various incidents, and is able to give to 
each its proper emphasis, experiencing pleasurable 
or painful feelings as the case may be, he is prepared 
for the highest type of oral reading. Oral reading 
becomes educative when it is re-creative. 

Time in Oral Reading 

In much of the oral reading consideration is not 
given to the time element. Any effort to make the 
oral reading as rapid as the silent leads to a tele- 
scoping of words and phrases which obscures the 
thought. The reader must bear in mind his audience. 
It must follow him and unless he is clear and delib- 
erate, emphasizing and inflecting appropriately, it 
will soon be characterized by inattention. Beading 
must be thinking both to the reader and audience if 
interest and attention are maintained. Seeing words 
is not thinking, nor does the mere pronunciation of 
them convey thought. Thought must precede 
expression before expression can be followed by 
thought. The constant request the audience makes 
upon the reader is "Give us time to think." 
Although the questions, "What did you say?" or 
"What does that mean?" may sometimes indicate 
ambiguity of statement, they more often indicate 



ORAL READING 57 

that the utterance was so poor that it failed to 
impress the mind of the hearer. 

Two Suggestions 

Out of the list of numerous devices used to 
strengthen the power of oral expression two, at 
least, are worthy of further consideration. During 
the first year and even later, frequently practice 
having the child grasp the thought of the sentence, 
and then, with his face turned away from the book 
and his attention directed to the class, have him 
reproduce it. Drill of this kind will do three things : 
it will enable the child to grasp larger and larger 
units of thought, it will produce a better correspond- 
ence between his reading voice and his conversa- 
tional voice, and it will insure a more thoughtful 
expression. A little later, possibly in the third grade, 
give to a pupil some unfamiliar matter, but of a 
degree of difficulty adapted to the class, and with 
the rest of the class sitting as an audience, seek to 
have it read so that the class will attend the reading 
and be able to restate immediately, as well as at 
some future time, the gist of the selection. This 
plan will put the reader and the class to the real test. 

Training in Interpretation 

The interpretation of any story or selection will 
be greatly aided by judicious questioning. McMurry* 
says: 

* Special Method in Reading, pp. 111-112. 



58 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

"The chief aim of questions is to arouse vigor and variety 
of thought as a means of better appreciation and expression. 
Children read poorly because they do not see the meaning 
or do not feel the force of the sentiment. They give wrong 
emphasis and intonation. A good question is like a flash 
of lightning which suddenly reveals our standing ground 
and surroundings, and gives the child a chance to strike out 
again for himself. His intelligence lights up, he sees the 
point, and responds with a significant rendering of the 
thought. But the teacher must be a thinker to ask simple 
and pertinent questions. He can't go at it in a loose and 
lumbering fashion. Lively and sympathetic and appreciative 
of the child's moods must he be, as well as clear and definite 
in his own perception of the author's meaning." 

A Type Lesson 

A TYPICAL ORAL READING LESSON. SECOND MONTH OF 

SCHOOL 

Materials, three Teddy bears and a tiny house, 
three chairs, or pictures of these things. 

Teacher looks at one of the bears and says as she 
writes upon the board, "7 see the papa bear." 

She asks, "Is this true for you, Horace? Then 
tell me so." 

Horace replies, "I see the papa bear." 

Teacher quickly writes the same sentence directly 
under the first one. "Is this true about you, Pru- 
dence?" she asks. If Prudence sees likenesses 
quickly she can read the sentence. Not all children 
can do this during the second month of school. 

Teacher, pointing to word papa, says, "I'll erase 
this word papa and write mamma in its place. Now 



OKAL READING 59 

who can read the sentence?" "Show me that you 
do," she asks as the sentence is read. (The child 
touches the mamma bear.) The teacher holds up the 
baby bear, saying as she writes the sentence, "This 
is the baby bear." "You may tell me who this is," 
she says as she gives the bear to Marion. As Marion 
repeats, "This is the baby bear," the teacher points 
to the words upon the board. 

"Close your eyes, children," says the teacher, and 
while the boys and girls are not looking the teacher 
writes, "This is the baby bear," again in another 
place upon the board. 

"Look now and find another sentence telling who 
this is," says the teacher. "Muriel may show us." 
"See what this says" (writing under the above, 
"This is the mamma bear"). Several children read, 
holding up, or pointing to the bear mentioned. 

"This is the bears' house," writes the teacher, 
and she points to the house. Some of the children 
take the hint and can read the sentence. 

In quick succession the teacher writes : 

"I see the bear's house." 

"I see the Ell 3 O 



"I see the baby." 

"I see the baby's chair." 

"I see the papa." 

"I see the papa's chair." 

"I see the mamma." 

"I see the mamma's chair." 




60 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Considerable blackboard space is filled with the 
above work, which has been read a sentence at a 
time, many sentences repeated by different pupils. 

The lesson looks like this : 



X>ue__ ~TncLori/rn o. — -x^e 



"Edward may read all we have written," says 
the teacher, "and as he does so, Roscoe may touch 
the things he is telling about." 

At this stage of the work the teacher tells Edward 
the words or phrases he does not remember, making 
no effort to have him find out for himself. (As 




OEAL EEADrNG 61 

soon as he has all the letters in phonic work, cease 
to tell. The children should know them at the end 
of ten or twelve weeks.) 

At the close of this lesson the teacher devotes a 
few minutes to a word drill after some such manner 
as this: 

"We must say good-bye to the bears for to-day. 
You may put this bear, ' ' pointing to the word papa, 
"in the house." "Put the chairs away," pointing 
to the word instead of speaking it. "Elsie may 
erase the name mamma bear" while John puts the 
bear away. 

"When you pass to your seats, you may take 
turns in touching one of the words you know and 
you must tell us all what it is." 

Seat Work 

For seat work supplementing this lesson the chil- 
dren have a supply of these sentences mimeographed. 
These they cut up so that the words stand isolated. 
The children rearrange the words to "say things 
about the bears." 

They illustrate with crayon on desk top or on 
paper what they have said in the above mentioned 
arrangement. 

The purpose of such seat work is to keep the word- 
form before the eye of the pupil, and at the same 
time to make him need to think what the form stands 
for. 



CHAPTER VII 

Silent Beading 

It is expected that every child will become a rapid 
silent reader. This is a skill which can be acquired 
only through persistent, intelligent, well-directed 
practice. However, its acquisition is often endan- 
gered by the erroneous supposition that all reading 
in the primary grades must be oral reading. Skill 
in silent reading is never acquired through oral read- 
ing. Just to the extent that a reader finds it neces- 
sary to read aloud, to pronounce whole clauses or 
even words to get the thought, he is dissipating his 
energy. When one reads aloud he has his voice, the 
muscular tension accompanying it, and his ear as 
the agencies through which he interprets. 

Purpose of Silent Reading 

Up to the time the child enters school he is trained 
in ear-mindedness. As soon as he enters we begin 
to train him in eye-mindedness by teaching him a 
" sight vocabulary." This can be acquired only 
through silent reading, which seeks to establish and 
to intensify the direct association between the 
printed word and the thought. Printed language is 
primarily a representation of thought and not a 
representation of oral language, as some think. The 

62 



SILENT READING 63 

order involved in teaching reading is indicated by 
the following quotation:* 

"The association between the printed word and the thought 
should be made first, as it is in the case of all children who 
have never had the sense of hearing. After this association 
has been made, that between the oral vocabulary and the 
printed vocabulary should be made. Silent reading is the 
agency which enables the child to look through the words to 
the thought in the same way that one looks through a clean 
window glass to the objects beyond." 

The expert silent reader does not hear the sono- 
rous sounds of his own voice or experience any mus- 
cular tension of the vocal cords as he reads, espe- 
cially as he reads the literature of information. 
When one is reading the "literature of power," of 
inspiration, the kind that should be chosen for much 
of the oral reading, no doubt he will and should 
experience a "mental" pronunciation of the words. 
But the vast bulk of all our silent reading is of the 
former kind, and because of this we should strive 
to bring the printed word and the thought into direct 
association. The more intimate this association 
becomes, the less the necessity for the reader to 
think the reading in terms of oral speech before the 
thought is obtained. In proportion as he does this, 
he falls short of the ideal of silent reading for ordi- 
nary purposes. In all silent reading, the vocal-mo- 
tor tendency should be reduced to the minimum, 
because it tends to retard or becloud the thinking. 

* T. M. Balliet: N. E. A. Proceedings 1893. 



64 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

The sentence read should awaken the ideational 
centers rather than the vocal-motor or the auditory. 
The words should be made as transparent as 
possible; the language series should become sub- 
conscious, mechanical, that is, offer the least pos- 
sible resistance. The great purpose of silent reading 
is realized whenever the attention is focused on the 
stream of thought rather than on words and phrases. 

Economy of Silent Reading 

Both time and energy are saved by such a process. 
It is a much shorter route through the eye to the 
brain than the circuitous one from mouth to ear to 
brain. The stimulation of this shorter route, the 
line of least resistance, is our aim in silent reading. 
The more stimulations it receives, the greater the 
speed of the reader. What a sad commentary it is 
to see children in the advanced grades, people in 
libraries, in hotels, and in other public places moving 
their lips as they read. The eye-minded person who 
gets the thought directly from the printed symbols 
can read several times as fast silently as he can 
read orally; while the ear-minded person who is 
obliged to get the thought indirectly through the 
oral symbols as they are recalled in idea by the 
printed symbols, cannot read materially faster silent- 
ly than he can orally. 

When to Begin 

From the very beginning some training in silent 
reading should be given. The teacher can soon 



SILENT BEADING 65 

write, "Come to me," "Erase the board," "Close 
the door," "Take your pencils," and as soon as 
the knowledge of the children will permit, entire 
lessons should be given in which hardly a word is 
uttered or a lip moved. Impossible, do you say? 
Not at all. This can be done as readily in the first 
grade as in the second. The lesson following this 
discussion is typical. Some may raise their voices 
in protest against this plan on the ground that not 
enough words are read in a given recitation, but in 
the lesson described the children read more than 
two hundred fifty words, more than in many of the 
lessons found in the readers for this grade. The 
best result will likely always be secured by corre- 
lating the lesson with action work. The interest 
in such a recitation is intense. One only needs to 
try it to be converted to the plan. The real test, of 
course, is displayed later in the increased ability to 
interpret easily and rapidly. 

The Lesson 

This was a second grade lesson. A full period of 
twenty minutes was given to it. Partly to save time 
and partly for variety, the teacher had some sen- 
tences, which she expected the children to read, 
written in bold script on cheap writing (manila) 
paper. It should be borne in mind that practically 
nothing was said during the recitation. The chil- 
dren were expected to read and perform. While 
every effort was made to reduce the noise and con- 
fusion of speech to the minimum, an observant vis- 



66 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

itor could easily tell that there was a maximum of 
mental effort on the part of the children. 

As soon as the class was seated, the teacher, dis- 
playing the first sheet on which was written, Let us 
play a game this morning, said, "What do you say 
to that, second grade ? ' ' Some members of the class 
said, "Yes, Miss M;" others clapped. They then 
read from the second sheet, You may get the box of 
bean bags, Harry. It is behind the screen. Harry 
obeyed. 

The teacher next wrote on the blackboard, Do you 
see a white dot on the floor, second grade? As soon 
as the class located the dot, she continued by writing, 
Use that dot for the middle of the circle. Draw a 
little circle about it, Trevor. When Trevor had com- 
pleted his circle the class read, Draiv a big circle 
around the little one, Dorothy. As Dorothy's circle 
was very irregular, the teacher wrote, That does not 
seem round; erase it, Lucile. You may try, Lillian. 
Her circle was poor and again the teacher wrote, 
That does not suit me very well. Erase it, Donald. 
Make a circle, if you can, Chas. B. His effort brought 
the merited commendation of Better. 

The teacher was now ready to continue with fur- 
ther instructions regarding the game. She wrote, 
// you toss a bag into the little circle, it counts ten. 
Number the circle, Harriett. Erasing the words 
little, ten, and Harriett, and substituting big, five, 
and Josephine B., the teacher had this sentence, If 
you toss a bag into the big circle, it counts five. 
Number the circle, Josephine B. 



SILENT READING 67 

Considerable interest was aroused by the teacher's 
next sentence, which read, Let us play the boys 
against the girls. Shall ivef 

The final instructions for the game were on the 
writing paper. The fourth sheet read, You may give 
a red bean bag to each girl and a green one to each 
boy, Harry. The fifth sheet said, The boys may 
stand on the north side of the circle, the girls on 
the south side. 

The children very quickly separated into two 
groups, each group going to a place indicated by a 
straight mark on the floor, located about seven feet 
from the circle. They were now in position for play 
and only needed to have captains appointed. As 
they were arranging themselves, the teacher wrote 
on the board, Virginia may choose the players for 
her side; Trevor for his. 

As the captains alternately called the names of 
their players, they stepped to the lines and tossed 
the bags at the circles, displaying much real pleasure 
when a bag fell where it counted ten and much dis- 
appointment when one fell outside the circles, where 
it counted nothing. It soon became evident that 
there were more girls than boys and the teacher 
wrote, The girls have three more on their side than 
the boys have, so Trevor may choose three boys to 
play twice. 

When all had thrown, they read this sentence, 
Can you count the score, Donald? "Yes, Miss M.," 
he said. She then wrote, Count the green bags first. 
Count out loud. As he picked up the bags, he counted 



68 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

them by fives and tens, according to where they lay, 
and fonnd that the final score stood sixty-five for 
the boys and sixty for the girls. 

As the lesson proper was now completed, the fol- 
lowing instructions came rapidly by way of the 
blackboard : 

Seats. 

Please pick up the bags, Josephine, Edith. 

Will you put the bags away, Frank? 

Put my paper and handkerchief on the table, Harriett. 

You may remain and erase the floor, Bobert. 

Suitable Games 
Other games which may be adapted are : 

1. The old fashioned game of "Hop Scotch." 

2. "Marching to Jerusalem." 

3. The farmer and his cornfield. 

4. Hide the thimble. 

5. "The farmer wants his pets." 

6. "Fruit Basket." 

7. Games based on stories the children use in language 
and reading. 

8. "Cobbler, Cobbler, mend my shoe." 

9. A great variety of games with bean bags or ball. 

The following books contain games which may be 
adapted for silent reading: 

Perrin and others: One Hundred and Fifty Gymnastic 
Games. Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston, Mass. 

Lamkin: Play; Its Value and Fifty Games. Holbrook- 
Barker Co., Chicago. 



SILENT BEADING 69 

Newell: Games and Songs of American Children. Har- 
per & Brothers, Boston. 

Johnson: Education by Plays and Games. Ginn & Co., 
Chicago. This book contains a most excellent and complete 
bibliography of games and plays. 

Poulsson : Finger Plays. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 
Boston. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Word Drills 

The study of words is not intended immediately 
to afford power in thought getting, but to give skill 
in the recognition and mastery of new words. As 
we have already stated, these drills should at first 
be carried on apart from the regular reading lesson. 
The words used for drill in recognition and pronun- 
ciation should be those that are found in the early 
part of the first book to be studied. As soon as a 
few words have been mastered, the acquisition of 
the vocabulary will be greatly assisted by constantly 
combining them with the old in a variety of ways. 
The same words must be recognized in many new 
connections. 

All phases of drill work are intrinsically uninter- 
esting. All the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the 
teacher must be exercised upon work of this sort if 
an interest is maintained in the recitation. She is 
justified in appealing to the "puzzle instinct" and 
to the competitive impulses to stimulate activity in 
the children. The fighting instinct may be awakened 
by the stimulation of rivalry for immediate results 
or for displays later. The devices following this 

70 



WOED DEILLS 71 

discussion show in a very practical way some of the 
uses made of these instincts. 

Before leaving this, let us emphasize one direc- 
tion. Make the drill recitations short and vigorous. 
All drill work should be kept at high pitch, otherwise 
the mere repetition of the material will tend to 
fatiguing monotony. Begin to drill as soon as the 
class is seated. Do not waste any time in prelimi- 
naries. A two minute drill recitation vigorously 
conducted is worth more than fifteen or twenty min- 
utes characterized by listless, tactless, wooden 
teaching. 

The Purpose of Drills 

The purpose of every drill lesson is to make some- 
thing function as habit. Its factors are "focaliza- 
tion and repetition in attention." By focalization is 
meant getting the thing to be learned before the mind 
cf the learner through explanation or demonstra- 
tion, or both. After the mind is centered upon the 
thing, it is equally important to repeat and repeat 
until the response is automatic. Evidently the first 
habit to be established in a child is the habit of rec- 
ognizing and pronouncing easily and readily words 
and phrases as wholes. This is what is done in 
practice later. Speed and fluency in reading are 
gained as one acquires the ability to take in large 
groups at a glance, and in proportion as he does 
this he becomes a rapid, effective reader. 

While we must begin to drill upon isolated words, 
the words themselves become valuable only when 



72 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

they are seen to function in sentences. This visual- 
izing of unrelated words must continue until the 
child has acquired the power of mastering words in 
sentences. With this end in view we append a 
number of devices found serviceable in handling the 
drill phases of reading in the first two grades. 

Some Devices for Drill 

1. Words in bold print or script are held for a 
second before the eyes of the pupil, then turned 
away. These should be words the child has met in 
sentences during some previous lesson, or words so 
similar that he should be able to recognize them very 
quickly. The "perception" cards, about four by six 
inches, may be easily made of manila paper by the 
teacher and printed with a Fulton Sign Marker, a 
useful tool for every primary teacher. The speed 
of this exercise should be gradually increased, but 
never so far as to result in haphazard guessing by 
the children. 

2. Hide these cards about the room. Send groups 
of children to find and bring before the class all they 
can recognize. 

3. Match the words on these cards with words 
upon the board or chart. This is a device to be used 
early in the first year. 

4. The purpose of this exercise is to teach the 
child that certain symbols, regardless of position, 
size, or color, always represent a certain word. 



WORD DRILLS 73 

(a) Write one of these words at a time among other 
words on the blackboard. 

(b) Write it in different places on the blackboard. 

(c) Write it in different sized letters. 

(d) Write it with different colored crayon. 

5. Have the children build words with letter cards. 
This is a good device for seat work. 

6. Promote a contest between members of the 
class in pronouncing rapidly the words to which the 
teacher or some child points, the words being before 
the eyes of the whole class. 

A variety of other devices for enlivening this 
formal exercise, called a word drill, can be used to 
aid in reaching the desired results. Whenever pos- 
sible the imagination of the child should be stimu- 
lated by the thought of the lesson. If the lesson is 
the story of "Hiawatha's Brothers," the teacher 
writes on the board such words as: 

beavers acorns 

reindeer timid 

squirrel built 

rabbit swiftly 

lodges hid 

ran why 

She then says, "Play you are Hiawatha. All these 
words are ypur friends, hiding in the forest. See 
if you can find them out and tell their names." 

Or, "At first the beasts were a little afraid of 
Hiawatha and ran away. How many can you catch 
before this eraser makes these friends disappear?" 



74 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

She erases a word here and there, the children pro- 
nouncing as fast as words vanish from the board. 

Or, if the lesson is one about the seashore, the 
teacher may suggest, ' ' I have written all these words 
in the sand. Charlotte may play she is a big wave. 
She may wash away (erase) all she can get (pro- 
nounce)." 

Or, "See all these pretty shells! Who can get a 
basketful of them?" The children pronounce in turn 
and claim as theirs the words they recognize. 

These devices should be appropriate to the 
moment; it is almost impossible to suggest suitable 
ones for general use. They are numerous, but their 
use should be limited. 

Several devices valuable in the second year for 
drill on words may be mentioned here : 

1. The child pronounces as rapidly as he can the 
words down the middle — or edge — of an ordinary 
page of reading material. 

2. The teacher begins reading aloud a sentence 
anywhere upon the page and the child who first 
finds the place reads the sentence. 

3. Concert work in pronunciation of lists of words 
can be made valuable to all in the class if some such 
plan as the following is used : 

The teacher touches words, one at a time, with 
the pointer, then waits a second before removing it. 
The pupils understand they are not to speak until 
this is done ; then all speak, and promptly. 

Special attention should be given to enunciation in 
all word drills. 



WOED DRILLS 75 

A Type Lesson 

A TYPICAL READING LESSON FROM THE BOOK. FOURTH 
MONTH OF SCHOOL. 

Parts of the lesson. 

1. Connecting the lesson with the child's experi- 
ence by a question or two. 

2. Teaching the new words from blackboard sen- 
tences. 

3. The use of the book. 

Teacher. ' ' Have you ever seen a rainbow, John ? ' ' 

John. "Yes, I saw one yesterday afternoon. It 
was such a bright one." 

Teacher. "What colors seemed the most beauti- 
ful to you?" 

John. "Oh, I liked the blue and the red and the 
green, but all of them were beautiful." 

Teacher. "Did all of us see that rainbow? I did, 
and I thought about you and hoped you were looking 
at it." 

Then, placing a glass prism in the sunlight, the 
the teacher points, until they discover the rainbow. 
Then she writes on the board : ' ' See the little rain- 
bow!" 

A child begins to read, but is puzzled by the word 
rainbow. The teacher tells the word, but after the 
sentence is read by several children she asks, "If 
you should ever forget this word, how could you find 
it out for yourselves ? ' ' The children give the sounds 



76 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

represented by the following letters, to which the 
teacher points, one by one, r-a-n-b-o. 

She then writes : ' ' The colors are very beautiful. ' ' 
If several children look puzzled, she asks, pointing 
to the word colors, "Does this word trouble you? 
How does it begin?" The children give the sound 
of the initial letter.* The teacher gives the vowel 
sound and the children repeat it after her. Then 
they go back and give the initial sound and the sound 
of o in quick succession, following with I and r, as 
the teacher points, until they discover the word. 

After this sentence is read, a child is asked to read 
both the sentences from the board. The teacher 
erases the first two words from the last sentence and 
substitutes Rainboivs. Several children read the 
new sentence. 

"Red is a beautiful color." 
' ' Green is a beautiful color. ' ' 
"Blue is a beautiful color." 

These sentences are written one after another, 
giving drill, and a thought-producing drill, upon the 
new words beautiful and color. Several children 
read each, trying to make us know that they realty 
feel these things, if they do. 

Then the teacher says, "I want to ask you some- 
thing. It is going to begin, 'Have you ?' 

I'll ask it on the board." She writes, "Have you 
seen the rainbow before?" "Ask Edith, Harold," 
she says. Then erasing the words the rainbow, she 

* The chapter on Phonics gives extended drill on this work. 



WORD DRILLS 77 

substitutes these colors. The children ask and 
answer these questions. Turning from the board to 
a set of printed words prepared on perception cards 
with the aid of a sign printer, the teacher says, 
"Hiawatha saw the rainbow one day. The book tells 
about it. Here are some words you'll need to know 
before you can read the story." 

Again, the teacher shows words on which she 
wishes to give further drill, in appropriate sentence 
settings. She emphasizes the words by reading all 
of the sentences except the words to be recalled, 
pausing expectantly when she comes to their places 
that the children may pronounce them. All of the 
sentences, or merely the drill words, may be written, 
the teacher speaking the others. 

"The sun was in the s%." 
"It was in the western sky." 
"The rainbow was in the eastern sky." 
"Hiawatha asked questions." 
"Nokomis answered the questions." 

As the teacher shows the words again and without 
comment, the children as individuals pronounce them 
and in some cases give the sounds of the letters to 
"help them remember." 

The class then turn to page sixty-six in the Hia- 
watha primer and read the page, each sentence 
studied through silently by all the pupils, then read 
orally by a few. The teacher often asks for several 
review sentences to be read by one child, and finally 
the page is read as a whole by one or two pupils. 



78 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Seat work supplementing such a lesson as this 
might consist in word building of letter aards. 

colors orange 

rainbow green 

red yellow 

blue purple 

It may consist also in the sorting of colored wor- 
steds, placing a red bit by the side of the word 
red, etc. 



CHAPTER IX 

Phonics 

A large proportion of the letters in our written 
language represent sounds. A knowledge of what 
sounds various letters stand for helps a child to find 
out for himself words new to his eye, but already 
in his spoken vocabulary. The diacritical marks 
used in the dictionary help him to pronounce words 
new to both eye and ear. A pupil has no need for 
diacritical marks so long as he is meeting in print 
and script only words familiar to his ear. 

The work in phonics should aim at giving the 
child a real mastery over the printed page. Some 
say that he should be independent of the teacher 
as soon as possible. Others prefer to delay this 
matter of independence a little while for the sake 
of habits they think more important, but all, prob- 
ably, agree that the pupil should grow steadily in 
ability to gain new words for himself. 

Avoid Formality 

The teaching of these sound values to the children 
should be done with the least possible amount of 
; 'red tape." The children are to look upon these 
symbols as tools with which they are to do things. 
The sooner they are masters of their tools, the 

79 



80 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

sooner they can "find out what the book says" for 
themselves. 

Formal work in phonics can be begun with profit 
at any time after the first few weeks of school. 
During these weeks the teacher, in some such man- 
ner as follows, is laying a foundation for what is to 
come: 

Ear Drills 

Here the pupil for the first time grows conscious 
that a word may be separated into sounds and that 
these sounds may be recombined into words. Unless 
the analysis of words into sounds and the synthesis 
of sounds into words is thus prepared for, the pupil 
will be much handicapped later. So the teacher who 
presents exercises like the following to her class 
during the first weeks of school has in mind the ulti- 
mate help they will be to reading, although now 
they are not given during the reading lesson proper 
and seem to have very little connection with it. 

Exercise 1. — Getting ready for recess offers an 
easy and ready opportunity for early practice in 
phonics. The devices which may be used for such 
work combine the play spirit with the process of 
learning. The children enjoy guessing what the 
teacher says as well as performing what she indi- 
cates. For instance, the teacher says, "You may 
pick the scraps up off the f-l-oo-r. The children 
listen, probably unconsciously repeating in half 
whispers this strange combination of sounds. When 
in their minds it grows into the wholly familiar word 



PHONICS 81 

-floor, they obey the direction. Other instructions, 
similar to those indicated below, follow, the teacher 
in each instance separating the underlined word into 
its component sounds. 

Edith may get the b-a-s-k-e-t. 
Please p-a-ss the basket, Harold. 
Will you open the d-oo-r, John? 
You may r-i-se. 
Eric may be the c-a-p-t-ai-n. 
Get your d-r-u-m. 
You ma} r m-a-r-c-h. 
etc. 

Exercise 2. — Physical exercises offer an excellent 
field for emphasizing the elementary sounds. How- 
ever, as the teacher gives the sounds she must be 
careful not to indicate by her own movements what 
they mean. The right and delight of interpreting 
the sounds belongs wholly to the children. The fol- 
lowing sentences will suggest a line of exercises 
which may be used : 

You may touch your two sh-ou-1-d-e-r-s. 
Touch your ch-ee-k-s. 
Stretch your arms to the s-i-de. 
Stretch arms d-ow-n. 
Stretch arms u-p. 
Upward c-i-r-c-le. 
Upward c-l-a-p. 
You may r-u-n. 
You may t-r-o-t. 
etc. 



gg BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Ear and Lip Drills 

Exercise 1.— For some time the children have been 
interpreting the sounds the teacher has made. She 
now leads them to imitate her analysis of words and 
has them repeat after her the sounds of simple 
words, for example, b-a-11, c-a-11, t-a-11, f-a-11, letting 
them through ear and voice become conscious of the 
likenesses between such words. 

Exercise 2. — The element of play may be intro- 
duced here. The teacher may say, "See if you car* 
guess what I see." Closing her eyes a moment, she 
says, "I see a c-a-m-e-1." And, impossible as it may 
seem, a large proportion of first grade children 
cannot hear the word camel when it is analyzed into 
separate sounds. Those children who articulate the 
sounds well may be allowed to take their turns in 
propounding questions. For instance, one may say, 
"What do I see? I see a f-ai-r-y;" another, "What 
do I see? I see a f-i-sh;" etc. So say the little 
leaders, while the other children at their seats con- 
tinue to half whisper the strange sounds until they 
"hear" the word. 

Exercise 3. — Suggestions may be made for home 
work, simply to keep the ideas more frequently in 
mind. ' ' Suppose, ' ' says the teacher, ' ' that this noon 
you try to have mamma guess some words when you 
speak them very, very slowly. Perhaps you will ask 
her for some m-ea-t, or perhaps you will want some 
m-i-l-k. ' ' 

Exercise 4. — The teacher may say, ' ' I am thinking 



PHONICS 83 

of a word that begins with m," making the sound 
with her lips. The children guess, one by one. 

"Is it mamma?" 

"No; it is not m-amma," emphasizing the initial 
letter slightly. 

"Is it middle?" 

"No; it is not m-iddle." 

"Is it marble?" 

" No ; it is not m-arble, ' ' etc. 
Soon the children can take their turns in choosing 
a word for others to guess when the initial only is 
given. 

Exercise 5. — A little later the teacher may use 
the same device to concentrate attention on termina- 
tions. 

"I have a word that rhymes with day," she says, 
and the pupils guess as before. 

This game can be made of value to second and 
third grades by introducing the element of definition. 

"I have a word that rhymes with tree" says one. 

"Is it a joint in the body?" questions another. 

"No, it is not knee," answers the first. 

"Is it that with which we open a lock?" asks 
another. 

"No; it is not key," etc. 

Exercise 6. — While initial sounds are being empha- 
sized the teacher may frequently say, "Say the 
beginning of your name," or, "Start to say sum- 
mer," or, "Play you cannot talk plainly; you can 
say only the very beginnings of words. What do 
you say for papa? for bed? for water?" etc. 



84 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Ear and Eye Drills Combined 

Following the vigorous and systematic work in 
ear and lip drill, there comes, after a few weeks, the 
connecting of the oral and written symbols in the 
mind of the pupil. For this purpose, the following 
devices will prove helpful: 

Device 1. — The teacher says, "Say the beginning 
of the word, mamma, Frances." Frances says m; 
the teacher then writes the word mamma upon the 
board. The class recognize it at once, as it has been 
taught before. Covering up all but the initial m, 
the teacher says, "This letter stands for the sound 
Frances made. It always says m. ' ' Then she writes 
the letter in several places on the board, the children 
giving the sound quickly as she writes. 

Device 2. — Next she says to the children, "Play 
your finger is a piece of chalk. Write in the air the 
letter that says m," etc. This aids very greatly in 
securing a distinct and accurate visualization of the 
form of the letter. 

Device 3. — When the children begin the mastery 
of a vowel sound the teacher instructs them as fol- 
lows : ' ' This letter a says several things. Sometimes 
it says a, sometimes a, sometimes a, and sometimes a. 
When you see this in a word you will have to try 
first one sound and then another until you hear a 
word that seems sensible. What sounds does a 
stand for ? ' ' asks the teacher. The children respond, 
* ' a, a, a, a, ' ' and the drill is continued until the four 
sounds in the above order are memorized. These 



PHONICS 85 

four sounds are all that are taught for a in primary- 
grades. They are enough for practical purposes. 
Other vowels are taught in a similar manner. 

Device 4. — After a week's work in drill upon writ- 
ten and printed letters representing the following 
sounds, a, a, a, a, m, s, t, c, e, e, r, p, the children 
are ready to use these letters in word building and 
word analysis. A few plans for such work are indi- 
cated below: 

a. "You may write the little word m-e," says the 
teacher, speaking the last word very slowly. And 
the children write in bold script in the air or on the 
board the two letters representing the sounds they 
hear. 

"Write m-a-t, p-at, c-at," etc., directs the teacher. 
Inasmuch as such combinations as at, et, etc., occur 
frequently, they are soon recognized as phonograms 
and are not separated into their component elements. 

b. "See if you can find out what word I am 
writing," she says and writes slowly m-e-t, the chil- 
dren making the sounds with their lips as she writes, 
and again as she points to the letters. "Try another 
sound of e," she may need to suggest, for in this 
case there is no context to guide the child's voice 
and he may give the wrong sound. 

Erasing the initial, she writes s in its place, and the 
children find out the new word by saying s-et. Then 
while the children close their eyes, she substitutes 
p for s, and again m for p, as the children find out 
one word and then another. 

c. Soon the children can build lists of words that 



86 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

rhyme when one word is given them, and, too, can 
pronounce rather readily lists of rhyming words 
when one of them is familiar. 

d. Work with words whose beginnings are alike 
but whose terminations vary, may also be done. 

The word pail is taught as a sight word, for 
instance. Then upon this as a foundation the chil- 
dren build such words as pain, pails, paint, paints, 
etc., the teacher making her approaches in two ways, 
as : (1) Erasing the final I, she asks, "Who can make 
this say p-ai-n?" emphasizing n a little; or, (2) 
"Who can tell me what word I have made?" she 
says as she adds t to pain. 

Keep Phonic Drill and Reading Separate 

All this time the work in phonics is kept entirely 
separate from the reading lessons, which are filled 
to the brim with interesting material of literary 
value. The thought is the basis of the work there, 
and both sentence and word methods are used. 

But after perhaps two months, when all the fol- 
lowing sounds have been thoroughly taught in a 
period devoted to phonics, the programme changes. 
The drill in phonics may then occupy about three 
minutes at the beginning of each reading lesson, and 
the period previously devoted to phonics is given 
over to writing or word building, with either printed 
or written letters. 

. The three-minute drill, for some weeks, will con- 
sist in the children's repeating, either in concert or 
as individuals, the following sounds as the teacher 



PHONICS 



87 



points to them, sometimes in the following order, 
often promiscuously. In introducing this drill the 
teacher may say, "We shall need to know these 
sounds very well in order to find out some new words 
in our new story." This furnishes the children with 
a motive for mastering the elementary sounds. The 
sounds may be grouped on the basis of the organs 
used in giving them. While it is not necessary for 
the children to analyze the way in which the different 
sounds are produced, except possibly in the case of 
those who have some physiological hindrance to clear 
pronunciation, it is advisable that the sounds be 
learned by groups. These groups furnish the key 
to pronunciation. In connection with each sound, 
we have placed a type word, a word which may be 
used as a means of acquiring other words of the 
same "family." The type words should be learned 
as sight words. 



Group 1 


a-all 6-hot 


b-p (bin-pin) 
d-t (den-ten) 


e-eve Q-do 
e-met u-tune 


g-k (get-kill) 
v-f (vat-fat) 
th-th (this-thin) 
z-s (zone-sun) 


l-ice ii-sun 

l-pin ii-rude (oo) 

o-note 

w-wen (approximates 6T>) 


zh-sh (azure-shun) 


y-yet (initial approximates e) 


Group 2 

a-mate 
a -bat 
a-far 


y-by (when ending a little 

word equals i) 
y-many (when ending a long 
word equals l) 



88 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Group 3 Group 5 

1-line j-jug 

m-my ou-out 

n-nine ow-owl 

r-ring oy-toy 

Group 4 oi - oil 

h " him Group 6 

g"g ate wh-when 

g"g em gh-laugh (often silent) 

e-mercy sh-shun 

c_ca h ph-phlox 

x-six (ks) ng-sing 

x-exit (gz) qu-quit (kw) 

s " sm k qu-pique (k) 

§-has 

When placed on the board for drill, each letter 
should be written but once, and without marks or 
explanations. The teacher when she points to a for 
example will expect the pupil to respond promptly 
a, a, a, a, unless she says, "Give one sound for this 
letter, Mary," "Another, Paul," "Another, Grace," 
etc. If she desires the sounds given expressed in 
the type words, she must so instruct the class. 

After the second month of school, the pupils must 
be led, encouraged, and even pushed into using their 
knowledge of phonics in their reading work. Many 
opportunities are afforded for this. For instance, 
at the end of a reading lesson the teacher may ask 
as she writes one at a time on the board, a few al- 
ready familiar words from the lesson, "If we should 
forget this word, how could we find out what it is 1 ' ' 



PHONICS 89 

" C-r-a-d-1-e, " sounds from the pupils as the teacher 
points. "M-o-ss," they say again, etc. 

The sentence, "You may get the bean bags," may 
be upon the board. John is puzzled by the last word. 
Shall some one tell him? No, let him grow in self- 
respect by finding out for himself. The teacher at 
first points to the significant letters, passing over 
the a in bean, but later she does not even give so 
much help. John tries first one value of ea, then 
another, until he finds a word that fits the context. 

Advantages of Simplicity 

This "try-another-sound" method has several 
advantages over methods that try by a multiplicity 
of rules, marks, phonograms, and helpers to account 
for all the possible combinations of letters in our 
complicated English language. 

1. It gives the child fewer formal things to be 
conscious of. 

2. It forces him to think the sense of what he is 
reading. 

3. His reading books have no markings, no aids 
save those of the picture and the thought. He will 
be independent of the teacher's help sooner if he 
does not wait for her to mark the letters, show the 
"helpers," or suggest the rule, but thinks only 
"What does this tell?" 

4. Every child ought to be given opportunity to 
rely upon his own judgment and good sense, and 
this method of supplying a child with the simplest 
possible set of "tools," and then letting him alone 



90 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

to work out his own salvation with them, gives fre- 
quent exercise to the judgment and common sense 
of the child in question. 

If a child comes across the sentence, "I bought 
this new book in the city, " it is fair to infer that he 
would not be satisfied with the hard sound of c in 
the last word, and "because it doesn't make any 
sense" is a far better reason to him for rejecting it 
than any formal rule about "c before i." Let him 
build up his own rules about sounds after he has had 
enough experience to warrant it. 

Only continued practice will make a child really 
independent in the matter of reading. Again and 
again he must meet new words and always must 
he master them. He can do this if the teacher has 
given him a working knowledge of phonics. She 
should never give more than the amount of "help" 
absolutely needed. The pupil must not look for any 
help until he has used every bit of knowledge he pos- 
sesses which bears on the point in question. 

A Caution 

The danger in all this work is that the children 
will acquire bad habits regarding silent reading. 
They necessarily move their lips in "sounding" 
words, and they appeal to the ear to help the eye 
recognize combinations of letters. 

The teacher should take care that the children do 
not get into the habit of moving their lips uncon- 
sciously and unnecessarily. The child who has strug- 
gled through several new words in a sentence should 



PHONICS 91 

be directed, "Now read that to yourself, using only 
your eyes." A teacher should commend the child 
who remembers words as wholes when they have 
been once presented. Of course he has an advantage 
over the child who, meeting the word flower four 
times in a paragraph, has to study it out letter by 
letter four times. And, of course, the child who 
laboriously finds it out four times for himself, has 
an advantage over the child who cannot find it out 
for himself no matter how much time be given him. 
A pupil should never grow into the way of think- 
ing that "sounding words" for himself is in itself 
a virtue. The virtue lies in finding out ivhat the 
book says. The more readily he can do this, the 
better. The use of phonics is "the only way out" 
if the eye fails to recognize the words that stand in 
the way. 



CHAPTER X 

Dramatic Reading 

Children are born with the instinct of dramatic 
imitation. They live, during the period of child- 
hood, in a make-believe world. Under the magic 
touch of imagination, inanimate objects are filled 
with life, acquire the gift of speech, the power of 
locomotion, and are subject to all the ills and frail- 
ties of a human being. Parties, church socials, 
school, home life, etc., are played with imaginary 
companions. The most insignificant object, a worm 
perhaps, is easily and readily transformed into a 
cherished pet or some horrible creature. In fact, 
the whole world is drawn upon by this dramatic 
power and expressed in make-believe objects or 
symbolic movements. 

For all practical purposes the child is fancy free 
until he enters school, where, too often, the conven- 
tionalities of the ordinary school room curb and 
restrain the vivid imagination, the tendency toward 
spontaneous and original action, the very instinct 
which, when properly directed and developed, has 
constituted the real basis of all scientific inquiry and 
of every form of art. 

92 



DRAMATIC READING 93 

What the teacher needs is resourcefulness in sup- 
plying material for dramatic representation and 
skill in effecting its reproduction. Reading offers a 
fertile field for the cultivation of this power. 

Social Benefits 

The enthusiasts claim that dramatic work in con- 
nection with reading brings the pupil and teacher 
into a new relation, where, for the first time, they 
actually become acquainted. Of course this 
acquaintanceship is unreal and likely ineffective in 
its results in case the teacher fails to live in the play 
on the level of her children. However, when this 
result is achieved, the work will not be pleasurable 
simply, it will be a positive delight and enjoyment. 
Unless this spirit saturates the work, the social ben- 
efits to be derived from it are of no more real value 
than superficial manners are to an individual in 
good society. 

It is claimed that dramatization furnishes proper 
ideals of conduct. When a child represents some of 
the characters found in the fables, legends, myths, 
historical stories, or classics, with which our best 
recent readers are fairly well supplied, he surely 
grows in ability to interpret human life and char- 
acter and in securing the emotional basis which 
enables him to experience deep sympathy and affec- 
tion for ideals of a certain type and to loathe those 
of another. His ideals of conduct are likely to grow 



94 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

just in proportion to the growth of his power to 
portray beautiful character artistically. 

Effect Upon the Voice 

Dramatic work aids the speaking voice. It demands 
clear enunciation and correct pronunciation. If the 
language is poor, the pronunciation slurred, and the 
voice weak and indistinct, the acting loses its force- 
fulness. However, it is not wise to give extensive 
drills on these preceding the performance. Growth 
in power of expression will accompany growth in 
skill in reproducing. The naturalness of the play is 
of paramount importance and in so far as we are 
able to secure it, the children, unconsciously, will 
strive to use the tone and language of those whom 
they are representing. 

Other Results 

As has already been hinted, successful dramatic 
work leads to self-forgetfulness. When a child goes 
out of himself, beyond himself, and becomes another, 
he is truly dramatizing. He then reads with the 
proper expression and appreciation. He is no longer 
conscious of the language ; its mechanism does not 
restrain ; he is the living embodiment of the thought 
of the selection. The droning over words disap- 
pears and the atmosphere, so far as the child is 
concerned — and it ought to be equally true of the 
teacher— is surcharged with living ideas. What 
finer example of realistic reading can be found in 



DRAMATIC READING 95 

the school! It is only when a child goes beyond 
himself in play of this sort that his ideals are 
realized. 

Because of the universality of the dramatic 
instinct most children take naturally to this form of 
reading. The diffident, backward, and awkward may 
need to be encouraged at first, but when they have 
once caught the spirit of the game, no further urging 
will be required. They need only an incentive for 
reading. 

Dramatizing, if it be a success, presupposes dis- 
tinct and accurate visualization, and this is basic to 
all oral reading. As a child lives through the expe- 
riences of the story, he is strengthening the power 
of visualization. More than that, he is developing 
an ability to read with expression and is laying the 
emotional basis for a real literary interest. 

Dramatics and Memory Work 

In order that a story or a poem may be drama- 
tized, it is not necessary for the children to commit 
it. They need only to have it told them or to read 
it until they are thoroughly familiar with it, to be 
ready to play it. Their language will always corre- 
spond to that of the book, but it will not be a mere 
repetition of it. The children will need frequent 
suggestions at first, but these should be eliminated 
as rapidly as possible in order for the spontaneity 
and freedom of the actors to have full play. They 
will soon exercise commendable judgment in select- 
ing performers and in arranging for the play. 



96 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

The Place of Dramatic Reading 
A stage effect is never to be sought, merely a 
realistic reading. Costumes, paraphernalia, a plat- 
form, — none of these is essential. The imagination 
will supply them all. All dramatic work in school 
can be justified only on the ground that it affords 
an opportunity for reading. It represents, in the 
first place, the child's interpretation of the selection. 
After the play has been sympathetically criticised 
by both the teacher and pupils, it can then be read, 
or rather re-read, with increased meaning, vitality, 
and force. So dramatic reproduction stands between 
reading for understanding on the one hand and 
reading for interpretation on the other. It is not 
indulged in for mere entertainment, — in fact, it 
should never be permitted for this alone. 

Because of the unique place it holds in the mastery 
of a given selection, there will be no special time 
for it, nor can it be given every day. It may be 
used with increasing frequency, as fluency is gained 
in reading, but it will always be used more in the 
lower than in the upper grades. 

As indicated above, the art-element is present 
when children yield with freedom to an intense 
urgent desire for expression. The crudities of their 
speech must be left for future correction. Many of 
them will drop out, through imitating the teacher, 
long before the time for correcting them is reached. 
Of course, all flagrant abuses of language must be 
corrected, but, in the main, the freedom and invent- 
iveness of the children should not be interfered with. 



DRAMATIC READING 97 

Miss Bryant on Dramatics 
After speaking of the crudities and absurdities 
that ought to be overlooked, Sarah Cone Bryant 
says: 

"The teacher, on the other hand, must avoid with great 
judgment certain absurdities which can easily be initiated by 
her. The first direful possibility is in the choice of material. 
It is very often desirable that children should not be allowed 
to dramatize stories of a kind so poetic, so delicate, or so 
potentially valuable that the material is in danger of losing 
future beauty to the pupils through its present crude handling. 
Mother Goose is a hardy old lady and will not suffer from the 
grasp of the seven-year-old ; and the familiar tales and fables 
of the 'Goldilock' variety have a firmness of surface which 
does not let the glamour rub off ; but stories in which there is 
a hint of the beauty just beyond the palpable — or of a dignity 
suggestive of developed literature — are sorely hurt in their 
metamorphosis, and should be protected from it. They are 
for telling only. . . . 

"Another point on which it is necessary to exercise reserve 
is in the degree to which any story can be acted. In the 
justifiable desire to bring a large number of children into the 
action one must not lose sight of the sanity and propriety 
of the presentation. For example, one must not make a 
ridiculous caricature, where a picture, however crude, is the 
intention. Personally represent only such things as are 
definitely and dramatically personified in the story."* 

* Stories to Tell Children, p. 39. The introduction to this book, 
its stories, and Miss Bryant's former book, How to Tell Stories to 
Children (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), not only enumerate many stories 
suitable for dramatizing and offer excellent suggestions regarding the 
playing of them, but ako emphasize the intimate relation story-telling 
bears to language work. 



98 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Miss Bryant continues by saying : 

"There is a definite distinction between the arts of narra- 
tion and dramatization which must never be overlooked. Do 
not, yourself, half tell and half act the story; and do not let 
the children do it." In illustrating this blunder she tells of a 
teacher who said that, after much practice, she had acquired 
the ability to lose herself in her story and could hop, like a 
fox, when she told the story of the "sour grapes." Miss Bry- 
ant, describing the production of this story by the children 
of that teacher, said there was a "constant alternation of nar- 
rative and dramatization which was enough to make one 
dizzy." "The trouble with such work," she continues, "is, 
plainly, a lack of discriminating analysis. Telling a story 
necessarily implies non-identification of the teller with the 
event; he relates what occurs or occurred, outside his circles 
of consciousness. Acting a play necessarily implies identifica- 
tion of the actor with the event; he presents to you a pictare 
of the thing, in himself. It is a difference wide and clear, and 
the least failure to recognize it confuses the audience and 
injures both arts." 

Of course, dramatic work does have some indirect 
results of the highest possible value. Professor 
Blaisdell has summed them up in a single sentence : 

"Dramatizing is a potent factor in teaching oral reading 
and oral language because it makes the child understand 
literature, because it makes him self-reliant, and because it 
makes him see the vital relation between a story and the life 
he is living today." * 

Illustrative Examples 
A few concrete examples taken from regular class 
work may serve to make the foregoing discussion 

* Blaisdell: N. E. A., 1907, p. 491. 



DRAMATIC READING 99 

more meaningful and to demonstrate the practical 
utility of it. The first is the story of King John 
and the Abbot, taken from "Fifty Famous Stories 
Retold," a collection well adapted for such work. 
It was given by the second grade, but during the 
time of its rendition the first grade was seated in 
the room and they were invited to listen. Although 
the second grade had previously read the story, they 
were asked to re-read it, really to get a further 
understanding of it and to sense its atmosphere, but 
ostensibly to familiarize the first grade with it. To 
accomplish this latter purpose the readers stood in 
front of the class and read in clear, distinct tones, 
endeavoring, also, to convey the meaning through 
appropriate inflection. 

Suggestive questions bearing upon the part just 
read and then upon the part to be read were asked 
from time to time. The conversational parts of the 
lesson were read more than once to get the proper 
interpretation. The references to Canterbury and 
Oxford drew attention to the fact that prints of 
these ancient institutions were hanging on the wall. 
The teacher caught up the spirit of the work and 
read once, but the instant she reached a very critical 
and interesting place, she stopped, and the pupil fol- 
lowing her read with renewed zest and enthusiasm. 
The story was read to the place where the shepherd 
mounted his horse and set out for London. The 
class was then invited to act the story so that the 
first grade would know it all. The first grade had 
been very attentive so far, but now they were all 



100 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

alert. "With very little help from the teacher, pupils 
were selected to impersonate King John, the Abbot, 
the shepherd, servants, professors in Cambridge and 
in Oxford; and the various important places were 
readily located. It was interesting to note that King 
John appropriated the teacher 's chair for his throne. 
The first grade and the teacher now became visitors. 

During the acting the language of the story was 
not given verbatim. King John mused in his dis- 
gruntled way about the social prominence Of the 
Abbot and finally sent his messenger to the Abbot 
demanding his immediate presence in court. After 
he had criticised the Abbot, he propounded the three 
famous questions and demanded an answer to them 
in a fortnight or else the Abbot should lose his head. 
The good Abbot went forth crestfallen, visited the 
wise professors of Oxford and Cambridge, seeking 
an answer to the questions, and finally in despair 
started home, when he met the shepherd who resem- 
bled him and who offered to go disguised as the 
Abbot to the King and answer the questions. His 
answers to the King saved the life of the Abbot and 
brought him a pension, the King saying he would 
' ' pension him on a dollar a day. ' ' Such naive state- 
ments added interest to the adult listeners. The 
shepherd hurried home to the Abbot rejoicing and 
cried out, "The King said you are free and so 
am I." 

The entire performance, reading and play, 
required but twenty-five minutes. At its conclusion 
it was discovered that the first grade did not fully 



DRAMATIC READING 101 

comprehend every situation and the second grade 
quickly arrived at the conclusion that they must 
always act so as to make the story clear and that 
just in so far as they did not they failed. 

Perhaps another illustration will help. Some time 
earlier in the month the children had read the story 
of "The Cat and the Birds" in the Aldine Second 
Reader, and when the teacher, turning to it on the 
day the writer happened to be present, said, "Now 
we are going to have a good time with that story," 
the children cheered. Stimulated with the desire of 
acting it, for thus they interpreted her statement, 
they were allowed to read it again and were urged 
to show that they understood each situation by 
their expression. 

The text furnished three choice pictures which 
aided greatly in getting the proper visualization of 
the story. The first picture contained the bird house, 
with some birds sitting about and others flying in 
and out. The old cat was seated on a tall stump 
near by, gazing wistfully at them. The second pic- 
ture presented the cat dressed as a doctor, standing 
before the door of the bird house, hat and pills in 
hand, seeking of a much disturbed bird admission. 
The third picture showed the tragedy of the last act. 
The birds were flying angrily at the cat and he, in 
his fright, lost his glasses, pills, and tile and fell 
from his lofty perch. When representing the cat 
the children read as if they really wanted to get in, 
but when representing the birds they used a sur- 
prised and indignant tone. 



102 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

When the reading was finished, preparations were 
made for the play. Some children were chosen to 
represent the birds, one of the boys to be the make- 
believe doctor, and the home of the birds was located. 
The birds flew to their home, moving their arms 
np and down as wings, and running lightly on their 
toes. The first scene was acted quickly and nat- 
urally; then the old cat, disguised as a doctor, with 
a pointer for a cane and crayon for pills, in a very 
dignified way called at the home of the birds on the 
plea that he wished to treat a sick bird, but cher- 
ishing the secret purpose of having a fat meal. The 
birds, penetrating his disguise, attacked him furi- 
ously and drove him away. The total time spent 
upon this entire recitation was twenty minutes. 

Dialogue Reading 

Selections which contain an abundance of dialogue 
may be used for a kind of dramatic reading. Chil- 
dren in the third and fourth grades greatly enjoy 
dramatic dialogue reading. As a preparation for it 
the children should be taught to note the quotation 
marks, the parts that are explanatory and 
descriptive only, and, in answer to questions, should 
be required to tell the parts within the quotation 
marks. A study lesson might be assigned thus: 
Copy the parts in quotation marks ; write the names 
of the characters in the order in which they speak 
in the story; tell how many and what scenes are 
there in the story. 



DRAMATIC READING 103 

As an additional preparation, give some practice 
in reading the dialogue parts. Plan the staging, as 
the reading proceeds, leading the children to do as 
much of this as possible. Assign characters to the 
children who read well, introducing the other chil- 
dren gradually by giving them short or easy parts. 
Sometimes it is well for the teacher to take one part 
and let a timid child take the other. Call attention 
to the hints given in the author's comment in the 
text concerning the expression. Let the children 
know that in another lesson they will act the parts 
instead of reading them. Attention should be called 
often to the part to be omitted in a broken quotation. 
If the children are inclined to be forgetful after 
the parts are assigned, ask each child the name of 
his character. 

On the day the story is to be acted, review the 
staging and characters, call attention to any points 
that were especially troublesome the day before in 
the dialogue reading, and encourage originality. The 
children in a fourth grade played parts of the ' ' King 
of the Golden River" for their own pleasure at 
noon and recess when told they were to act it the 
next day. 

Stories suitable for dramatising in the primary 
grades: 

The Lion and the Mouse. — zEsop. 
The Fox and the Crow. — Msop. 
The Boy Who Cried <.<Wolf."— JEsop. 
The Boy and the Goats. — Norse fable. 
The Three Bears. — South ey. 



104 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

The Three Pigs. 

The Town Musicians. 

Incidents from story of Hiawatha. 

Brok and Sindre. — Norse myth. 

Loki's Theft. — Norse myth. 

How Thor Found the Hammer. — Norse myth. 

The Apples of Idun. — Norse fable. 

Miraculous Pitcher. — Greek myth. 

Hermes and Apollo's Oxen. — Greek myth. 

King John and the Abbot. — From "Fifty Famous Stories." 

Other Wise Men of Gotham. — From "Fifty Famous Sto- 
ries." 

Peter and the Magic Goose. — From "Fifty Famous Sto- 
ries." 

Pandora's Box. 

Jack and the Beanstalk. 

Many other stories found in reading books may 
easily be adapted. 



CHAPTER XI 

Seat Work 

The greatest waste in the public school occurs, no 
doubt, in the recitation; the next, in the seat work. 
Children, oftentimes, are expected to study at their 
seats before they have acquired the power of sep- 
arating the essentials from the non-essentials. 
Because of this inability, or rather lack of ability, 
they fall into habits of rote-learning and verbalizing. 
These weaknesses are especially prominent in the 
lower grades where children have little power of 
attention. Here they are disposed to heed every 
passing thing, to be attracted by the gay, the bright, 
and the unusual. 

Until the power of inhibition is nurtured and 
strengthened, we must expect mind-wandering and 
wool-gathering on the part of the children. Aside 
from the immaturity which, in itself, is a cause of 
verbalizing, this tendency is to be attributed fre- 
quently to teaching that directs attention to form 
rather than to content or to teaching, if it can be 
so styled, that accepts verbatim or paraphrase- 
answers of the text-book. The intimate connection 
existing between the assignment and seat work will 
be elaborated in some detail in chapter XXII. 

105 



106 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

The Purpose of Seat Work 

We realize full well the numerous difficulties with 
which the primary teacher is confronted in regard 
to seat work. Many of the myriad devices invented 
were intended simply to give children employment, 
to keep them quiet without reference to whether 
they were especially educative. This purpose, the 
least laudable probably of all, must, of course, be 
realized if there is more than one grade or class in 
the room. Usually, however, this end should be 
attained by giving material, something to do, which 
supplements the recitation. If the recitation has 
been well-conducted, it is a simple matter to stim- 
ulate in the children a motive for carrying forward 
at their seats some of the things brought out in 
class. 

Excellent opportunities are easily found for word- 
building and for illustrating the reading lesson. 
Whatever is done at the seat must afford oppor- 
tunity for the children to be active, not merely men- 
tally but physically as well. The children must be 
made to feel that they are doing something. They 
like to see results. In every case where seat work 
is assigned, the pupils must be held responsible for 
it, but the necessity of using force to secure results 
will diminish in proportion as we are able to create 
a desire in the children for doing the thing. 

Seat work is also assigned that children may 
acquire habits of neatness and accuracy. No slip- 
shod, indifferent, inaccurately prepared work should 



SEAT WOEK 107 

be accepted. Looseness in one place is likely to 
mean looseness in another. It will not do to have 
neat and accurate work done in the reading only; 
it must be done everywhere and all the time if the 
habit is to be of the greatest possible utility. 

Really the end to be striven for in all seat work 
is independence on the part of the worker. This 
goal is probably never completely attained, but 
growth toward it should characterize the child as 
he passes through the grades. 

Proportion of Time 

In the primary grades the first three of these pur- 
poses are the ones emphasized most in seat work. 
The seat work in these grades is reduced to the min- 
imum and the recitation work is extended as much 
as possible. Educators disagree somewhat as to the 
amount of time to be given reading in the lower 
grades. Few think that it is entitled to less than 
one-third and many hold that it should have one- 
half or two-thirds of the total time. Regardless of 
the amount of time given it, it is undoubtedly true 
that the chief business of the primary school is to 
teach the child to read. Because this is true, reading 
is entitled to more time than any other subject, but 
most of it should be given to recitation. 

Since there must be some seat work in connection 
with reading in most schools, there is appended to 
this statement a brief list of devices which have been 
found of value. 



108 



BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



Two Kinds of Seat Work 

In two ways the work in reading may receive help 
from seat work: 

I. The form of words may be kept before the 
eyes of the pupils and the impression thus deepened. 

II. The thought of the story may be expressed by 
the hands of the children in a variety of ways. 

EXAMPLES OP PIEST KIND FIRST GRADE 

1. The teacher writes with a brush a word for 
each child upon drawing paper. The child cuts out 
the word and takes it home. 




2. The words are written with damp chalk upon 
the desk-tops. Children cover tracings with lentils 
or corn. 

3. Mimeographed words from sentences used are 
given to the children in such form as this : 



They cut on the 
straight lines and 
pile together words 
that are alike. 



4. The above words are used another day in 
building sentences which the teacher has written on 
the board, i. e. : 



Indian 


Indian 


was 


was 


Nokomis 


Indian 


his- 


his 


grandmother 


Nokomis 


an 


boy 


Hiawatha 


was 


boy 


Nokomis 


Hiawatha 


his 


an 


was 



SEAT WORK 109 

Hiawatha was an Indian. 
Nokomis was an Indian. 
Nokomis was his grandmother. 

5. The above words are used another day to build 
original sentences, i. e., without blackboard copy. 

6. Envelopes containing pictures and slips of 
paper upon which are written words naming the 
pictures, are distributed. The children match name 
and picture. 

7. Printed letters are used for word and sentence 
building. 

8. Pages from sample primers and first readers 
are mounted. The stories are copied in bold script. 
The words in script stand each on a separate oblong 
and are in an envelope with the printed page. The 
children build sentences with written words, match- 
ing those on the printed page. 

SECOND GRADE 

9. Pupils do silent reading from supplementary 
books or papers. 

EXAMPLES OF SECOND KIND SECOND GRADE 

1. The children draw, cut, or paint pictures which 
''tell the story." This exercise can be used in either 
first or second grade. 

2. The children in the second grade may imper- 
sonate one of the characters in the story just read 
and tell in writing what was seen or heard or done. 

3. They may model in clay something that helps 
tell what they have read. 



HO KEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

HOME WORK 

The children are allowed to take their books home 
only occasionally. This will have a better general 
effect on their reading than if they take them home 
daily. 

THIRD GRADE 

Many of the devices used in the two preceding 
grades may be continued here. The children will 
now receive longer assignments. These should call 
for a higher type of independent work. This year 
marks the close of the intensive study of the 
mechanics of reading. The quantity of reading alone 
may be materially increased. As literary and ethical 
notions are beginning to bud, a more intensive study 
of the selections must be made. We note a few sug- 
gestions as to what may be done : 

1. As a preparation for dramatic-dialogue read- 
ing, have the children select the parts in quotation 
marks and read them over until there is no difficulty 
in omitting the explanatory parts. 

2. Allow the children to outline a story they like 
very much or to write from an outline given them. 

3. They may now make their own list of the new 
words in the selection, of the strange and unfamiliar 
expressions, etc. 

4. At times they may write the central thought 
of each paragraph or division of the selection. 

5. Some opportunity for practice outside of class 
in oral reading should be permitted if conditions will 
allow it. 



CHAPTER XII 

Pictures 

The word picture is often used to refer to the 
imagery of the selection by the reader. Clear and 
accurate imagery is prerequisite to clear and accu- 
rate expression. The use of this kind of pictures is 
more fully discussed and explained on pages 192-195. 
The statements made there hold true, to a great 
extent, concerning the work of the primary grades, 
though here there is likely to be less of completeness 
as there is less experience for understanding the 
fulness of literature. 

Imagery 

That perfect expression depends upon the correct 
understanding of the idea back of it is well illus- 
trated by certain stories told of a very efficient 
supervisor of the Indianapolis schools, now retired, 
and whom we will call Mr. B. Mr. B. believed that 
if one thoroughly understood a sentence he could 
read it. He held it unnecessary to give instructions 
such as, "Let your voice fall at the close of the 
sentence," "Give emphasis to this word or that ex- 
pression," "Note the exclamation or the interjec- 
tion"; that special attention to quotation marks, 
direct and indirect discourse, a pause at a comma, 

ill 



112 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

etc., could in the main be eliminated. Every super- 
visor has found that much of the criticism of the 
teacher and practically all of that of the children 
is given upon this formal side. This kind of criti- 
cism may degenerate into a ' ' get-even ' ' spirit among 
children, and nearly the entire recitation period be 
consumed in giving worse than worthless criticisms. 
No doubt the pupils must learn to make unconscious 
use of the mechanics of composition, but when criti- 
cism of any character ceases to be helpful it should 
be discontinued. 

Mr. B. spoke of his theory before the supervisory 
body of the city schools, some members of which 
took exceptions. He then placed upon the board 
this sentence, ' ' That little boy reads well, ' ' and chal- 
lenged any one to try to read it correctly, making 
the assertion that no one could do so. One person 
read it, "That little boy reads well." Whereupon 
Mr. B. said, "Now, this class is made up entirely 
of boys and therefore you did not read it correctly. ' 7 
Mr. B. then asked the reader what conditions he 
had in mind when he read the sentence. After some 
hesitation he acknowledged that he thought the mem- 
bers of the class were all girls with one exception. 
He was then given the condition that they were all 
boys and one smaller than the rest; then he read, 
"That little boy reads well." And finally he was 
given the condition that they were all little boys; 
then he read, "That little boy reads well," thus 
proving that if one knew the idea back of the sen- 
tence he could and would express it correctly. 



PICTURES 113 

Use in Primary Reading 

Mr. B. continually impressed this notion upon his 
teachers and the supervisors. One somewhat fos- 
silized teacher finally declared to him that, while 
she believed his doctrine applicable to the upper 
grades, it was entirely untenable in the lower. She 
was told that it could be applied best in lower grades 
as the pupils there were freer from preconceived 
notions and were not yet self-conscious about their 
reading. On visiting her room one day, he was re- 
quested to do the teaching, which he did. The class 
was reading, "The can is in the pit," in a discon- 
nected, halting way. He soon got on friendly terms 
with them by asking them what they were talking 
about and where it was, and directly one of the chil- 
dren read the sentence, "The can is in the pit." 
Mr. B. said he didn't believe it, and then the sen- 
tence was read, "The can is in the pit." When 
they were told that it was something else that was 
in the pit, the sentence was read, ' ' The can is in the 
pit." 

General Application 

Another teacher who was not in sympathy with 
this plan asked to be allowed to visit with him and 
see him teach reading throughout the grades. He 
taught a half-day for her, beginning with the third 
grade. He found this class to be dull and lifeless. 
They were reading about a boy and a girl who had 
a sled. When he took charge of the class, he sud- 
denly capered about the room as if he were pulling 



114 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

a sled, saying, "There they go," "See them," and 
the like, until the pupils were fully awake to the 
situation. Then he secured very intelligent reading 
because they were able to image correctly and viv- 
idly. He went from grade to grade until he reached 
the eighth grade, with this teacher following and 
observing. When he had finished, she said, "Well, 
Mr. B., I don't see how you are able to adapt your- 
self to all these grades." "Adapt!" he said; "it 
is not necessary. I simply keep in mind the making 
of the image of the thing clear and then they do 
the rest." 

These stories illustrate a secret of true reading 
which must be fully understood by teachers before 
they can get any realistic coloring in the oral 
reading. 

Pictures in the Book 

A cursory examination of a series of school 
readers reveals a marvelous evolution in illustra- 
tive material. From the early pictures of the plain- 
est kind, drawn and reproduced by apprentices, we 
now have re-prints of the world's masterpieces. 
Many of our readers have become galleries of art. 
What relation these beautiful pictures bear to read- 
ing does not always seem to have been very clear 
to writers, printers, or teachers. They make the 
books more attractive in appearance and more ex- 
pensive. No doubt many readers have been selected 
or adopted simply because of their handsome bind- 
ing and beautifully colored illustrations. Every 
one feels disposed to justify anything intended to 



PTCTUEES 115 

arouse interest in art, but what is found between 
the covers of readers must have other reasons also 
for its presence. 

Pictures and Mental Imagery 

It is easy to see how pictures may be used as a 
basis for language work, but not so easy to see their 
connection with reading work. Reading and writ- 
ing began with pictures. The fondness for pictorial 
representation and the tendency to linger over pic- 
tures is strong in children. Comenius, in his Orbis 
Pictus, was the first to utilize this principle in teach- 
ing. Surely all pictures found in the book should 
assist the reader in securing the appropriate im- 
agery. However, there is great danger just here. 
Too many pictures may weaken the child's power of 
creating his own mental pictures. While none 
should be given which do not afford a setting for the 
lesson, so many should not be given as to make 
mental energy on the part of the child unnecessary. 

Pictures may be used to get the children to think 
and talk freely about important situations in the 
lesson. If the picture is studied before the lesson 
is read, it is likely to arouse a keenness of interest 
in the reading selection. Whatever opinions are 
gotten by a study of the picture will be confirmed, 
modified, or refuted by the lesson proper. Pictures 
should be arranged in sequence in a way to tell the 
story of the lesson. They should tend to make the 
child feel the meaning of the sentences as he reads, 
and thus secure greater freedom of oral expression. 



116 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Every student of child-nature knows that pictures 
help in memory work. The writer knows a four- 
year-old boy who has a little book containing twenty 
or twenty-five poems, each one appropriately illus- 
trated, which he has committed. He does not know 
one printed word from another, but he "reads" his 
book by the pictures, reciting each poem correctly. 
The picture gives the cue. Older people uncon- 
sciously make much the same use of pictures. 

All pictures which do not aid in securing the 
meaning of the selection studied are a distraction 
and probably a menace. Those that do give such 
help should be studied together for the sake of the 
coherence and unity of the story and so as to insure 
a more appreciative reading. 

Inasmuch as the pictures that are bound into our 
reading books and hung on the walls of the school- 
room are now usually reproductions of masterpieces 
of art, we append a list of books that are of prac- 
tical help to teachers in their understanding and 
appreciation. Many of the principles of pictorial 
art that are explained and discussed in these books 
are largely true, too, in the art of literature. Cer- 
tainly they help one in literary appreciation. 

Bibliography 

Emery, M. S. : How to Enjoy Pictures, with a special 
chapter on Pictures in the Schoolroom, by Stella Skinner. Il- 
lustrated. The Prang Educational Co., Boston. Price, $1.25. 

This treats of the enjoyment of various kinds of pictures — 
landscapes, animals, etc. — tells how reproductions are made, 



PICTURES 117 

and gives practical suggestions as to framing and the like for 
the schoolroom. For one who knows nothing of pictures or 
who desires a simple, untechnical explanation, nothing is bet- 
ter than this. 

Van Dyke, John C. : How to Judge of a Picture. Eaton 
& Mains, Boston. Price, 75c. 

This grew out of explanations that the author made in 
taking through art galleries two young people who asked ques- 
tions. It treats simply of such topics as light and shade, per- 
spective, values, and the mediums of painting. 

Caffin, Charles H. : A Child's Guide to Pictures. Illus- 
trated. The Baker & Taylor Co., New York. Price, $1.25. 

This book, though a good explanation of technique, is not 
so- simple as its title implies. 

Caffin, Charles H. : How to Study Pictures, by means of 
a series of comparisons of paintings and painters from Cima- 
bue to Monet, with historical and biographical summaries 
and appreciations of the painters' motives and methods. Il- 
lustrated. The Century Co., New York. Price, $2.00. 

The aim of the book, says the author in the preface, is "to 
unfold the gradual progress of art, to show how various mo- 
tives have from time to time influenced artists, and how the 
scene of vital progress has shifted from country to country." 

Witt, Eobert C. : How to Look at Pictures. Illustrated. 
Bell & Co., London. Price, $1.50. 

This book treats of the personal point of view; considera- 
tions of date, race, country, and schools of painting; the 
kinds of painting; etc. 

Poore, Pi. H. : Pictorial Composition and the Critical 
Judgment of Pictures. Illustrated. The Baker & Taylor 
Co., New York. Price, $1.50. 

This is an untechnical explanation of composition. It tells 



118 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

how to get into and out of a picture, how a picture is evolved, 
etc., and contains chapters on art photography, aesthetics, and 
critical judgment. 

Van Dyke, John C. : Art for Art's Sake ; Lectures on the 
Technical Beauty of Painting. Charles Scribner's Sons, New 
York. Price, $1.50. 

Professor Van Dyke treats in these lectures: color, tone, 
light and shade, linear and aerial perspective, values, draw- 
ing and composition, textures, surfaces and brush work. The 
book is slightly more difficult than his "How to Judge of a 
Picture." 

Sturgis, Eussell: The Appreciation of Pictures. Illus- 
trated. The Baker & Taylor Co., New York. Price, $1.50. 

After a general introduction, the author discusses the epochs 
of primitive charm, early triumph, achievement, and splen- 
dor ; the beginnings of modern gloom ; and recent art in four 
aspects. The book is an interesting commentary on the pic- 
tures reproduced; it also gives in this way the general prin- 
ciples of art. 

Van Dyke, John C. : The Meaning of Pictures. Illus- 
trated. Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York. Price, $1.25. 

This is somewhat more technical yet, though written for 
the lay reader. It treats of the truth in painting, individu- 
ality, imagination, the decorative quality, and the like. 

Hurll, Estella M. : The Eiverside Art Series ; collections 
of pictures from the works of great masters, with explanatory 
text. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price, each, 75c. 

These monographs are very simple indeed. There is a vol- 
ume on each of the following: Eaphael, Eembrandt, Michel- 
angelo, Millet, Eeynolds, Murillo, Greek Sculpture, Titian, 
Landseer, Correggio, Tuscan Sculpture, Van Dyck. 



PICTURES 119 

Masters in Art. Bates & Guild, Boston. Price: current 
numbers, 15c each; back numbers, 20c each; subscription, 
$1.50 a year; bound volumes, $3.75. 

This is an excellent publication. Each monthly issue is 
of one artist, containing ten very good full-page reproductions 
of the works of the master; a biographical sketch, criticisms 
of the works of the artist ; an explanation of eaeh picture re- 
produced; a bibliography; a list of the important works and 
of the galleries where they may be found. The first volume 
appeared in 1900. 

Bacon, Dolores : Pictures That Every Child Should Know. 
Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. Price, $1.50. 

This book contains about fifty pictures, a short description 
of each, and sketches of the artists. 

Singleton, Esther: Great Pictures, as Seen and Described 
by Famous Writers. Illustrated. Dodd, Mead & Co., Boston. 
Price, $2.00. 

Singleton, Esther: Great Portraits, as Seen and Described 
by Great Writers. Illustrated. Dodd, Mead & Co., Boston. 
Price, $2.00. 

Sturgis, Eussell: The Appreciation of Sculpture. Illus- 
trated. The Baker & Taylor Co., New York. Price, $1.50. 

Sturgis, Eussell : How to Judge Architecture. Illustrated. 
The Baker & Taylor Co., New York. Price, $1.50. 

Belcher, John : Essentials in Architecture. Botsford, Lon- 
don. Price, $2.00. 

Drawing and Reading 

Many reading lessons lend themselves to pictorial 
representation on paper by the children. Children 
delight in expressing the story in pictures or in some 
form of constructive work. Their imagination sup- 
plies what their artistic skill omits. Their crude 



120 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

representations are as rich in meaning, if not more 
so, to them than those which adorn the pages of the 
reader. This device is as likely to convey and fix 
the meaning as copying or paraphrasing. It affords 
an excellent correlation, in fact one of the very best, 
with the manual work of the school, and it solves 
one of the problems of the seat work. 

Illustrating a story by some sort of constructive 
work appeals to children and is easily done. It 
carries the thought of the story along with it, aids 
the child in selecting the important points of the 
story, and, in unconsciously arranging the subject- 
matter as to coherence and unity, it renders the 
mental pictures more vivid and fixes the story in 
mind. 

Old Pipes and the Dryad* 

Seat work in picturing based on a reading lesson 
in advanced second grade. 

During the reading lesson, only one book was in 
use. Each child who read stepped before the class 
and tried to ' ' make the others understand the story. ' ' 

Before the lesson began the teacher said, "While 
we listen to the story let us think what pictures 
would help tell the part we are hearing. When you 
see an especially clear picture, you may raise your 
hand. We will write names for these pictures as 
we go along, and after the lesson is over you may 
really make your pictures with brushes and ink." 

* Frank Stockton 's Fanciful Tales. 



PICTURES 



121 



This plan worked out as the pictures and sentences 
show. 

The following sentences or phrases were on the 
blackboard, and the accompanying illustrations were 
made as seat work. In most cases the drawings have 
been very much reduced in reproduction : 



Old Pipes and his 
mother lived in a cot- 
tage on the hillside. 





Every evening Old 
Pipes sat on a rock 
before the cottage 
and played upon his 
pipe to call the cattle 
home from the hill- 
side. 



The cattle came 
down to the village 
when they heard his 
call. 




122 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 




After supper Old 
Pipes took his staff 
and started for the 
village. 



The road seemed 
very steep and rough. 





Three children 
from the village went 
after the cows now 
that Old Pipes could 
no longer make them 
hear his pipe. 



PICTUEES 



123 



"Children, will you 
help me up this hill- 
side?" 




The dryad looked 
around her. 



Old Pipes unlocks 
the dryad tree. 



124 



HEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 




The lazy echo 
dwarf was rudely 
awakened. H e h a d 
been sleeping in his 
cave a long time. 



The echo dwarf 
climbed upon the 
shoulders of the old 
man. 




PICTURES 



125 



He hid behind a 
rock near the tree. 





The dryad says, 
"Where is that wick- 
ed dwarf V 



126 



READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 




' ' Seize him and put 
him into the tree. ' ' 



"Now we are safe 
from his schemes." 




PICTUEES 127 



Old Pipes implored 
the dryad to make his 
mother younger with 
a kiss. 




She finds opportu- 
nity to do so. 



Old Pipes still calls 
the cattle home. 




CHAPTER XIII 

Memoky Work 

In recent years the cultivation of the memory has 
been greatly discredited by the pedagogical neo- 
phytes. They have argued for "learning by think- 
ing" as against "learning by remembering" so 
vigorously that those who clung to the conservatism 
of early days were effectually silenced. Drill work 
was sneered at; it was said to be a mind-cramming 
process and not an educative one. Training for 
memory, which formerly existed in the school, 
dropped almost entirely into disuse. The "literary 
society" became a reminiscence; the Friday after- 
noon exercise was abandoned because it did not train 
in thought power. Almost every thing that empha- 
sized the storing of the mind with useful informa- 
tion has been ridiculed. 

A few "old-fashioned schoolmasters" quietly pur- 
sued these methodical ways of furnishing the mind 
with some of the choice things of literature. The 
educational pendulum began finally to swing back, 
and now it wavers mid-way between the extremes 
of memory and thought, of cramming and develop- 
ment. The most recent books dealing with the prob- 
lem are urging the necessity of harking back to the 

128 



MEMOKY WORK 129 

good old days when children learned something, were 
masters of something, could repeat something, had 
facts stored and available for use. 

In no field is the demand for this backward swing 
and forward movement stronger than in reading. 
In Huey's "Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading" 
the tendency of the day is indicated in very plain 
language. "Accordingly, in the books by Miss 
Taylor, Miss Arnold, and other successful primer 
writers, teachers are urged to make much of mem- 
orizing poems, especially as an excellent means of 
learning to read. Songs are readily learned and 
read in this way." 

As long ago as 1869, President Eliot urged com- 
mitting to memory choice bits of literature to aid in 
learning the mother-tongue. The Committee of Ten 
advocated the introduction of memory gems from 
the third grade on, but there seems to be no good 
reason why they should not be introduced in the 
first two. 

The mental vacuity of children was clearly dem- 
onstrated by Professor C. Alphonso Smith, when at 
the University of North Carolina. He secured re- 
turns from his freshman class and found that 
38 per cent, of them had never been required to do 
any memorizing in their preparatory course. Thirty- 
five per cent, confessed that they could not repeat a 
single selection.* The present methods of educa- 
tion, so far as storing the mind with valuable 

* Echica. E. 12, 224. 



130 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

thoughts is concerned, are clearly proved a lament- 
able failure. 

Why Memorize Literature 

When the memory is not charged with the reten- 
tion of some of the fine things of life, it becomes 
filled with things of less ultimate importance, mere 
trivialities, or the affairs of every-day life crowd 
it. How much more important to store it with in- 
finitely precious possessions ! What is memory 
worth to one? It is the basis of his personality. It 
makes one a good companion for himself. If it 
were blotted out, intellectual darkness would imme- 
diately ensue. While the recall of memories of the 
past will in most instances be accompanied by pleas- 
urable emotions, the degree of these emotions for 
enriched living will be enhanced by the fineness and 
beauty of the material recalled. Nothing is so de- 
bilitating to the mind as to store it with trash, with 
silly stories and vulgar allusions, and nothing affords 
it greater strength and greater enjoyment than 
having it well-filled with an abundance of rare 
thoughts, drawn from literature, the world's treas- 
ure-house of wisdom. In either case, the plane of 
life is fixed by what we know. One is the mark of 
weakness ; the other of strength. It is as the psalm- 
ist says : ' * Thy word have I hid in my heart that I 
might not sin against thee." 

The great value of memory work was emphasized 
by Lord Coleridge in no uncertain terms. 



MEMORY WORK 131 

"Speaking as an old lawyer, I may say that few things 
compare in usefulness with an active, retentive memory, and 
one of the best methods of strengthening it is the habit of 
learning by heart passages we admire from authors, both in 
prose and verse. Many of us live to grow old ; if we do, our 
minds, if not ourselves, grow lonely; at such times the recol- 
lection of great thoughts, of lovely images, of musical words, 
comes to us with a comfort, with an innocent pleasure which 
it is difficult to exaggerate." 

The memorizing of classics enriches speech, culti- 
vates and forms taste, feeds and furnishes the mind, 
and strengthens and fortifies the soul. Professor 
Smith, in the article previously cited, says that 
it insensibly enlarges the vocabulary, reveals subtle 
harmonies of thought and expression, develops the 
rhythmic sense, cultivates a feeling for sentence 
structure, and establishes a habit that will afford 
real pleasure in maturity and old age. 

What to Memorize 

Selections which should be memorized are, in gen- 
eral, those in which the form and substance are so 
delicately interwoven that the form can not be 
changed without a distinct loss. For young children 
at least, and probably in most cases for older ones 
too, they should be short. Long poems are seldom 
ever quoted entire. As a rule, only the illuminat- 
ing parts of a long selection should be committed. 

Most of this discussion thus far has been con- 
cerned with memorizing for culture purposes. To 
prevent unjust criticism for our insistence on such 



132 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

work in a book dealing with the problem of reading, 
we wish to clarify the situation by declaring that 
the committing of classics is only of incidental im- 
portance to reading, but that it is an important 
indirect aid to the acquisition of skill in the me- 
chanics of reading and appreciation of worthy 
material is undeniable. 

How to Secure Memory Work 

In teaching a memory selection, the play of mo- 
tive should be aroused. Let us agree with modern 
pedagogy in its claim that the child should learn 
only what he wants to, but let us be exceedingly 
skilful in creating the want. Impulses must be 
stimulated in the child. Draw upon the instincts of 
social co-operation, pride, emulation, imitation, am- 
bition, and the like. Establish a living relation be- 
tween the child and the selection. This may be 
done by familiarizing him with it. Let it be told, 
sung, played, or prayed many times. A multiplicity 
of vivid exposures will likely be followed by the 
fixation of an experience. At any rate inspire him 
to want to learn this particular selection and exer- 
cise a rare wisdom in selecting the material. 

In the home no better time for the memorizing of 
beautiful passages from the Scripture and literary 
masterpieces can be found than evening. At dusk 
and early twilight the work of the day fades from 
the mind. The hour is sweet, delicious, and impres- 
sionable. It is the time for confidences, story- 
felling, and worship. Then the wise parent who 



MEMORY WORK 133 

has preserved a youthful disposition and who treas- 
ures deep the interest of his children, can put them 
unconsciously in possession of many gems of thought 
and advance them far along the road of literary 
appreciation. 

A question of the very greatest importance to 
parent and teacher alike is, What should be learned? 
It must be clear that the daily lessons should not 
be memorized. Evidently the teacher should know 
herself what the class is to commit. In no other 
way can she be fully awake to all the possibilities 
of the situation. In answer to our question, Hervey 
says: 

"That material is best for memory work which by its truth, 
its beauty, and its living power, most universally and per- 
manently satisfies the soul. For if it be true it will satisfy 
the intellect; if beautiful, the feelings; if vital, the will. To 
be true it must apply to all mankind, at every epoch of de- 
velopment and in every age. To be beautiful it must be 
clothed in language that perfectly expresses the truth and 
permanently satisfies the heart. To be vital it must touch 
the life — giving form and spirit to prayer and praise, giving 
wings to aspiration, giving impulse to action." 

Teaching of a Memory Selection 
The day of teaching memory gems of two lines, 
or at most four, unconnected in thought with the 
whole of which they are a part, is past so far as 
the primary grades are concerned. Then, too, has 
passed the notion that these gems must be lifeless 
abstractions, the summing up of some great prin- 
ciples of human life in a single sentence or phrase. 
The time this has cost, while not as good as wasted, 



134 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

certainly could have been better spent. Under the 
new and more rational regime the memory gem 
may, just as forcibly as in the old, convey its great 
universal truth, but here it is a thing of life, con- 
crete, and hence pleasure-giving. 

A teacher of literary selections should be a good 
oral reader and a good story teller. By the skill 
she displays in one or the other of these directions, 
she must expect to interest her children. She reads 
or tells in a manner appropriate to the selection to 
arouse interest and to get the thought back of the 
poem. Interest will be in proportion to the vivid- 
ness with which the mental pictures of the gem are 
portrayed. The physical attitude of the children 
is also of the utmost importance. They are likely 
to imagine more vividly and to listen more intently 
if they close their eyes. Vivid word pictures by the 
teacher render the imagination of the children active 
and, if cleverly handled, arouse the desire to learn 
the piece. The real dramatic spirit must pervade 
the teacher's story or reading, and the children's 
curiosity must not be stultified by telling them what 
is coming. If the children can be made to be eye 
witnesses and actors in the different scenes, be made 
to live in the action of the story, no pressure will 
be needed in getting it learned. They will want to 
learn it without the teacher's saying, in a defer- 
ential, patronizing way, "Now, children, you ought 
to want to commit this: won't you do it?" 

A teacher wished her second grade class to com- 
mit Celia Thaxter's "The Sandpiper." She invited 



MEMORY WORK 135 

the class to go on a long, long journey with her. 
Closing their eyes they journeyed to a lonely beach 
on the ocean. She proceeded, ' ' The waves are break- 
ing against the shore and as they break we hear a 
loud roaring. Heavy clouds are scudding across 
the sky. Away in the distance we can see a ship 
with its sails tightly rolled up or reefed. We see a 
lighthouse in the distance which, wrapped in mist, 
looks like a ghost. A little friend is going up and 
down the shore, uttering his sad, sweet, mournful 
cry. Our little friend is the sandpiper whom we 
studied about yesterday." She proceeded in this 
style, introducing the new words incidentally. The 
expressions, "rolling waves," "close-reefed ves- 
sels," "frowning rocks," "uptossed driftwood," 
"oncoming storm," "bright fire," "ghostly light- 
house," "lonesome sandpiper," furnished excep- 
tionally good opportunities for imaginative work. 
The children were asked to listen to the roaring of 
the ocean, to look far across the water, to watch the 
heavy clouds, to see the close-reefed vessels, to pic- 
ture the wet sand and walk through it, to gather fire- 
wood, to see the beach with the drift-wood scattered 
upon it, the waves rolling and tossing, and the ap- 
proaching tide. 

Following the teacher's story the pupils were 
allowed to tell what it made them think of. One 
remembered the sandpiper, studied the previous 
day; another, a visit of his to the ocean. It re- 
minded the teacher of an island in the ocean which 
she had visited many times, where Mrs. Thaxter 



136 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

had lived and had seen just such strange scenes as 
had been described. She had written a poem about 
what she saw. Would the children like to hear 
it? The pleasurable demonstration of the children, 
when asked this, could scarcely be restrained. 
The teacher read the poem twice. These readings 
gave them a connected picture. They were then 
given the poem so they could see "how it looks." 
They were encouraged to make it their ' ' very own, ' ' 
so that they might have it even if they lost the 
paper. One of the best readers was allowed to read 
it. The teacher then called into action the spirit of 
rivalry by seeing who could commit the first two 
lines first ; the second two ; the stanza — in each case 
allowing the winner to recite and requiring the class 
to repeat in concert. As they read they tried to 
imagine themselves the author. It is probably un- 
necessary to say that the children were very desir- 
ous of committing the selection, and that succeeding 
lessons were full of interest and the desire for 
mastery. 

Steps in Memorizing 

From what has been said, it is easy to infer what 
the steps are in teaching a memory selection. 

1. Present the mental pictures skilfully and vividly, intro- 
ducing the new words of the gem incidentally. 

2. Make the personal touch, by bringing in personal ex- 
periences. 

3. Introduce the author and the poem. 



MEMORY WORK 137 

It is unnecessary to introduce the author every 
time. Frequently, of course, it is wise to have the 
name of the author associated with the poem. He 
can be introduced by telling how he came to write 
it or where he lived when it was written. The au- 
thor should be mentioned when some circumstance 
connected with him makes the situation more living 
and real. 
4. Present the written form. 

Selections for Memorizing 

The list of selections given below is, of course, 
not complete, being merely suggestive of the kind 
of material to be used. 

First Grade 

The Lord's Prayer. — Bible. 

The Golden Rule.— Bible. 

Time to Kise. — Stevenson. 

Eain. — Stevenson. 

Singing. — Stevenson. 

Happy Thought. — Stevenson. 

The Whole Duty of Children. — Stevenson. 

My Bed Is a Boat. — Stevenson. 

Bed in Summer. — Stevenson. 

Spring. — Celia Thaxter. 

Lady Daffadown. — Cliristina Bossetti. 

Boats Sail on the Eivers. — Christina Bossetti. 

Who Has Seen the Wind. — Cliristina Bossetti. 

A Apple Pie. — Edward Lear. 

What Does Little Birdie Say? — Tennyson. 

Selections from Hiawatha. — Longfellow. 



138 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Second Grade 

My Shadow. — Stevenson. 

The Lamplighter. — Stevenson. 

Escape at Bedtime. — Stevenson. 

The Swing. — Stevenson. 

The Wind. — Stevenson. 

Marching Song. — Stevenson. 

Foreign Land. — Stevenson. 

The Lost Doll. — Kmgsley. 

Sweet and Low. — Tennyson. 

Sleep, Baby, Sleep. — Tennyson. 

A Boy's Song. — Blake. 

Which Mother Loved the Best. — Allison. 

Daisies. — Sherman. 

The Moon. — Lord Houghton. 

The Mountain and the Squirrel. — Emerson. 

Father, We Thank Thee. — Emerson. 

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. — Field. 

Psalm 100.— Bible. 

Psalm 23.— Bible. 

Third Grade 

Thanksgiving Day. — Childe. 

Children's House. — Longfellow. 

September. — Helen Hunt Jackson. 

How the Leaves Came Down. — Susan Coolidge. 

The Months. — Sara Coleridge. 

The Gladness of Nature. — Bryant. 

One, Two, Three. — H. C. Bunner. 

To a Child. — Wordsworth. 

The Swing. — Stevenson. 

The Little Lark. — Jane Taylor. 

Speak Gently. — Anon. 



MEMORY WORK 139 

The Sandpiper. — Celia Thaxter. 
The Snowdrop. — Tennyson. 

Books of Collected Poems 

Pinafore Palace. — Wiggin and Smith. (McClure, Phillips 

& Co.) 

Poems by Grades. — Harris and Gilbert. (Scribner's.) 
Posy Ping. — Wiggin and Smith. (McClure, Phillips & Co.) 
Child's Garden Beautiful. — Stevenson. (Rand, MeNally 

& Co.) 

A Book of Verses for Children. — Lucas. (Henry Holt & 

Co.) 

Another Book of Verses for Children. — Lucas. (The Mac- 

millan Co.) 

Child Life.— Whittier. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) 
Child's Calendar Beautiful. — Beeson. (Burt-Terry-Wilson 

Co.) 



PART III 

INTERMEDIATE AND GRAMMAR 
GRADES 



CHAPTER XIV 

The Intermediate and Grammar Grade Periods 

In each of these nascent periods important phys- 
ical and mental changes are occurring in the child. 
During the intermediate period the brain assumes 
its normal size, the sensation-centers are knitted to- 
gether, and the nerve-connections increase in num- 
ber and function. Compared with the preceding 
period, it is characterized by relatively slow growth, 
and yet there is an abundance of "excess" energy. 
The period is formative in the sense that the wan- 
dering, involuntary, passive attention tends to give 
way, under proper guidance, to the definite, active, 
voluntary attention, and in the sense that moral 
habits, habits of honor, and those referring to the 
commoner virtues, as well as habits of study, receive 
an impetus or trend that likely leads to their fixa- 
tion. 

Characteristics of the Period 

The child at this time in his life, has great powers 
of endurance. It is the time for storing reserve 

140 



INTERMEDIATE AND GRAMMAR GRADES 141 

energy. Although his conduct and character are 
variable and inconstant, they are greatly influenced 
by pressure. In referring to this period, President 
Hall says:* 

"Never again will there be such susceptibility to drill and 
discipline, such plasticity to habituation, or such ready adjust- 
ment to new conditions. It is the age of external and me- 
chanical training. Reading, writing, drawing, manual train- 
ing, musical technic, foreign tongues and their pronunciation, 
the manipulation of numbers and of geometrical elements, 
and many kinds of skill, have now their golden hour, and 
if it passes unimproved, all these can never be acquired later 
without a heavy handicap of disadvantage and loss. The 
method should be mechanical, repetitive, authoritative, dog- 
matic. The automatic powers are now at their very apex, 
and they can do and bear more than our degenerate pedagogy 
knows or dreams of." 

During the primary grades, imitation and example 
are prominent; during the intermediate grades, au- 
thority and precept are prominent. This does not 
mean that all the material given the child is or must 
be intrinsically uninteresting. Quite the contrary is 
true: it ought to be all the more interesting; but 
unless the child finds it so, he must be required to 
master enough of the rudiments of the subject to 
furnish a basis for interest. When he has no will, 
it must be supplied by his experienced teacher and 
parent. 

Aims in Training 

As more than three-fourths of all our experiences 

*Hall: Youth, p. 5. 



142 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

function as habit, we readily reeognize the extreme 
importance of fully utilizing this period. The mind 
must be stored with subject-matter, although the 
memory is not yet highly associative. Whatever im- 
pressions are received should be deepened by repe- 
titions. All drill subjects and drill phases of other 
subjects should be rendered as nearly automatic as 
possible. The mechanics of reading begun in the 
preceding grades must now be made habitual. The 
child must now acquire the dictionary habit, the 
skills used in articulation and pronunciation, the 
proper emotional response to the different kinds of 
reading material; and an abundance of worthy lit- 
erary selections should be committed. 

The skill the child has in interpretation should 
increase as the mechanics of reading become more 
automatic. While all reading is interpretation, se- 
lections that require effort for interpreting will in- 
crease in number and difficulty as the child passes 
through these grades. By the time he has reached 
the grammar grades this sort of teaching has be- 
come the kind to which he devotes almost sole atten- 
tion. 

Physical and Spiritual Changes 

The physical disturbances occurring during the 
grammar period and immediately following it are 
shown in the increase in size and in height. There 
is an enlargement and functioning of all the organs, 
an elongation of the vocal cord, increase in the vol- 
ume of the heart, etc. The whole system is under- 



INTERMEDIATE AND GRAMMAR GRADES 143 

going a change. Nervous centers, glands, voluntary 
and involuntary muscles — everything is affected. 
There is an influx of new sensations — the mind fills 
with hopes, dreams, tempestuous passions, and new 
ideas. The spirit of independence is germinating, 
egoism is giving way to altruism, social impulses are 
becoming dominant, and the reasoning powers are 
coming into use. The very worst things are liable 
to happen at this time of greatest of dangers. 
Ideals are now in the process of formation, and they 
may be either high or low. 

Extent and Character of Reading 

An increased interest in reading is characteristic 
of this period. The first impulse to greater interest 
in reading comes at the eighth year; it increases 
steadily to twelve years, and then takes a rapid rise 
to fourteen, reaching its height at fifteen. An in- 
vestigation of books used by boys shows that they 
use books of travel, adventure, and biography ; while 
girls prefer fiction. The thirst at this time must 
be satisfied and parents and teachers can well afford 
to spend much time and thought upon the selection 
of reading material for so important a period. The 
material selected should present a wholesome phase 
of life, should be good literature, and should be 
adapted to the age of development of the children. 
This leads us to say that the indiscriminate use of 
a public library is probably an exceedingly dan- 
gerous thing. Some responsible person should see 



144 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

that children have access to only the proper kind 
of books. 

During the intermediate period the mind is fur- 
nished with a multitude of images, notions, con- 
cepts, which are to be used now in interpreting 
more difficult literature. They got the basis before, 
the "apperceptive mass" by which they interpret 
now. 

The longer and more complex literary master- 
pieces, given as complete selections, should be used 
now for study. The time has come when much home 
study and collateral reading may be required and 
when children may be permitted and encouraged to 
read along lines in which they are specially inter- 
ested. 



CHAPTER XV 

Position and Criticism 

When a child reads in the class, he should be in 
a proper physical position. A careless or slovenly 
posture usually results in similar reading. When 
called on, the child should rise promptly and take 
the position required by the teacher. Some teachers 
have the pupil stand at his seat ; others require that 
he shall come to the front and face the class. 
Prompt physical response is apt to put him in a 
proper mental attitude for beginning his recitation 
and, moreover, it saves considerable time in the 
course of the year. 

A Good Position 

When reading in the class, the pupil should stand 
firmly on both feet, shoulders thrown back and chin 
well up. He should hold his book in his left hand, 
his right hand thus being free to turn the leaves or 
to assist him in any other way. If the child cannot 
see type clearly at fourteen or fifteen inches he needs 
to consult an oculist. He should habituate himself 
to hold the book from twelve to fourteen inches 
from his eyes. At any distance, he should hold the 
book so that an imaginary line from his eye will 

145 



146 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

form practically right angles with the page. The 
teacher must take pains to see that the child does 
not acquire the habit of swaying rhythmically, that 
he does not distort his face in any way, and that 
he does not hold his head aslant, so that one eye 
receives more than its share of strain. Some chil- 
dren get into such bad habits, and later it is very 
difficult to break them. A mirror will often convince 
the unbelieving offender of his bad habits. 

An observant superintendent in Illinois noticed 
that when called on the pupils in his schools dragged 
themselves to their feet, beginning the reading with 
the rising. The result, he says, was correspondingly 
bad. He instructed his teachers to accept no reci- 
tation from a pupil unless he stood in proper posi- 
tion before beginning to read. No one thing, de- 
clares this superintendent, has done so much to 
improve the oral reading in his schools. 

The time required for a child to pass from his 
seat to the front of the class is probably more than 
compensated for by the resultant advantages. The 
pupil has time to get into a proper attitude of mind ; 
gains the ease which comes from standing before 
others ; the class can see the reader and hence follow 
his reading better; and it makes whatever simple 
dramatic reading there be easier and more natural 
to undertake. 

While a pupil is reading aloud, the rest of the 
class sit attentive, with closed books. Of course, if 
the reading is a mere formal, mechanical repetition 
of words, the same paragraphs being read by one 



POSITION AND CEITICISM 147 

pupil after another, it is hard to get and almost 
inhuman to demand the interested attention of the 
rest of the class. But if, at each reading, the pupil 
reciting have some definite problem that he is trying 
to solve or some interpretation that he is endeavor- 
ing to give orally, it is quite a different matter. The 
class is as interested as the teacher (often taking 
its cue from him) in whether the reader will do what 
is expected of him. 

Criticism from the class should not only be in- 
vited — it should be expected: but it should be very 
carefully directed and wisely modified. If the class 
sit with their books open, each finger following the 
line, criticism of pronunciation and of minor detail 
will almost inevitably follow. Consequently books 
should be closed, a finger keeping the page, so that 
the attention may be given to more important things. 
Some teachers have only one book used in class ; each 
pupil after reciting hands the book over to the next 
one called on, indicating, as he does so, the place 
where he left off reading. 

Criticism 

Criticism from fellow members of a class is often 
heard with more genuine interest than that which 
the pupils sometimes feel is perfunctorily given by 
the teacher. Consequently this criticism from the 
class should be most carefully directed. In the first 
place, children must be made to understand that 
criticism means a judgment, not fault-finding. It 
may praise as well as blame; but, in either case, it 



148 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

should be definite, to the point, and usually detailed. 
It is wiser, both for the reader and for his critics, 
to have the class look for and commend the good 
points in the reading than to disapprove, especially 
in a vague or general way. A pupil finding fault 
with a reading should be prepared to say why it was 
bad and how it can be improved, often to illustrate 
the improvement. 

The teacher will usually find it wise to set some 
definite problem for each reading. "Let us see," 
he may say, ' ' if John makes us see the picture as he 
reads ' ' ; or, " Try to show through your reading how 
you feel"; or, "Make us sure of what this long sen- 
tence exactly means." A few leading questions may 
set the criticism on the right track, even though it 
starts afield. The requirement of justification of 
criticism or of a different reading restrains the over- 
hasty and also challenges the instinct for rivalry 
which may thus be directed for general improve- 
ment. 

No child should ever be permitted to read except 
in his best manner, either in or out of the reading- 
class. When he reads his problem in the arithmetic 
lesson, the statement from a history, a report in 
geography, or what not, nothing below his best 
should be accepted. Slovenliness in actual applied 
reading can never be overcome in the reading class 
alone. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Aeticulation and Enunciation 

If children heard only the best enunciation of 
words from the cradle until they reach the fifth 
grade, they would need only slight and occasional 
precept to insure perfect practice on their own part. 
But unfortunately, as we know, such is not at all 
the case. From babyhood each child hears enuncia- 
tion which, for the most part, differs merely in its 
degrees of badness. It is often said that no people 
speak in so slovenly a manner as Americans. 

The primary school does much for the children, 
but it cannot do all. Even if it had the time, the 
children are too immature to appreciate the teach- 
ings of careful and accurate pronunciation, or to 
follow them. So they come into the intermediate 
and grammar grades presenting this problem, too, 
for the teacher to attempt. The chance that each 
child will get enough instruction and practice in his 
share of the oral reading is ridiculously slight. As 
well expect him to learn his mathematics by the 
accidents of daily intercourse. The problems must 
be undertaken seriously and more or less independ- 
ently if we hope to improve the enunciation that we 
hear on every hand. 

149 



150 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Separate from Reading 

In the very beginning, let us understand that any 
work on this subject should be separated as far as 
possible from the regular reading lesson. It is not 
reading: it is preparing some tools for that work. 
If a short period cannot be had at a different time 
of the day, concentrate such work at the beginning 
of the reading lesson, and then leave it entirely 
when reading is begun. In this case, spur the drill 
up to such briskness that the children are in a fine 
glow when they enter upon the reading lesson. At 
no time should the drill be continued long enough 
to tire the children, nor should they be permitted 
to dawdle through it. It is marvelous what results 
can be secured if work similar to that outlined below 
is followed regularly for a few minutes each day. 

Each teacher should carefully listen to the chil- 
dren as they talk or read, to decide wherein lie their 
greatest faults. In children there will of course be 
differences, but in each locality there are apt to be 
glaring faults common to most of them. These con- 
sist in dropping the final consonant or " clipping' ' 
a word, as drinkin' for drinking; in dropping an 
intermediate syllable or letter, as gov'ment for gov- 
ernment, tv'at for what; and in a thickness of speech 
or ''mouthing," that is for the most part due to 
mere carelessness. The pronunciation of unusual 
words or of proper names offers no serious diffi- 
culty. The first, children are apt to get immedi- 
ately by imitation; the second, they get likewise if 



ARTICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 151 

drill enough is given, so that Orpheus and Proser- 
pine seem no more uncommon than Dillingham, 
Laughlin, or some other local name. 

The Beginning of Improvement 

Having decided which fault to attack first, the 
teacher should try to put the children under con- 
viction of sin. A splendid enunciation on the part 
of the teacher himself is the best start in the cru- 
sade; but, at the worst, his enunciation probably is 
better than the children's. It does not require much 
exaggeration and mimicry to call attention to the 
fault and to make it ridiculous. If the teacher has 
bad habits, he may even offer himself up as a hor- 
rible example by which the children may learn to 
avoid a similar end before it is too late! (For his 
comfort, however, be it said that a person under 
thirty-odd years can, by the exercise of will power 
and by practice, make as much improvement as a 
child. This is repeatedly shown by men and women 
who are studying elocution or for stage careers, a 
few months of hard work bringing almost miracu- 
lous changes. This is equally true, too, in develop- 
ing a fine voice. Dr. Mackenzie writes of ' ' the great- 
est English actor of the present day," who had 
a voice weak and rather monotonous. "He has 
shown," says Dr. Mackenzie, "how much may be 
done by perseverance to develop the powers of an 
organ naturally wanting in flexibility. By a labor 
improbus worthy of Demosthenes, his voice * * * 
has been so perfected that on the stage it is rich 



152 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

and sonorous and becomes harsh and strident or 
exquisitely tender at the will of the speaker." One's 
accomplishment is limited by nothing more than his 
own will to persevere in practice.) 

But better still is the good example of some one 
whom the children admire. If this model can be 
heard frequently, so much the better; if not, the 
teacher should describe the beauty of perfect enun- 
ciation and emphasize its importance. Words, some 
one has said, should fall from the lips as clean-cut 
as freshly minted coins. This beauty of utterance 
has given almost incredible power to more than one 
orator who, without it, would have seemed but medi- 
ocre, and almost every great orator had naturally 
or acquired the power, some of them over natural 
obstacles that seemed insuperable. The stories of 
Demosthenes rise in every one's mind as illustra- 
tive. But few of us are orators ; all of us, however, 
need to make ourselves understood in social or busi- 
ness ways. A young man or woman among stran- 
gers is estimated first of all by the enunciation used, 
and, unless a man makes himself understood in busi- 
ness talk, he is restricted to more or less mechanical 
or manual labor. 

Causes of the Faults 

The teacher must try to decide, too, what is the 
cause of the fault. Is it due to defect in hearing? 
If so, is that caused by deafness or by carelessness 
on the part of the child, which is a sort of mental 
deafness? Parents should be informed of any phys- 



AETICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 153 

ical defect, as oftentimes it comes on the child so 
gradually that they are not aware of it. But a child 
who remains in school can be helped privately, or 
even in class if his seat is moved so that he can hear 
the teacher's voice more distinctly. 

Some children, especially those of foreign-born 
parents, seem unable to distinguish certain sounds 
— for instance, v and w, h, or d and th. And others 
still get into slovenly habits, apparently not caring 
about hearing all of the word, even if it be spoken, 
so long as they get the sense. Children of these 
two classes need careful and patient instruction. 
Their attention must be called to each detailed ele- 
ment of the word, largely by pronouncing it, exag- 
gerating the part that they fail to get. This model 
for imitation may be augmented, if necessary, by 
calling attention to the way the lips, tongue, throat, 
and teeth are used in pronouncing the element. It 
is well known that people who are totally deaf learn 
to speak words in this way. 

The child should be aided personally to get the 
correct sound; but then the teacher's work is not 
done, as too often he seems to think. He must en- 
courage the child to repeat the sound again and 
again, introducing it in different words, until it is 
fairly easy. Then he must take pains to remember 
to call upon the child for a little practice now and 
then as long as help is needed. This requires time, 
of course, but in the long run it is economical. For 
the process once perfected will not have to be re- 
peated every time the sound is met. In school this 



154 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

is a task for the teacher alone. To summon the 
class to aid by calling attention to the error when- 
ever it is repeated is often a form of cruelty that 
results in such embarrassment on the part of the 
pupil that he is seriously retarded in correcting his 
bad habit and in learning to read well. It is rarely 
the case when such aid is advisable to stimulate the 
memory of some lazy pupil. 

Lisping, Stammering, and Stuttering 

Not infrequently teachers have in their rooms 
children who lisp, stammer, or stutter. The authori- 
ties are pretty well agreed that lisping is only a 
bad habit, sometimes a silly affectation, that can be 
easily cured. Let the teacher show the lisping child 
how the tongue is placed in uttering the sound of s, 
and then aid him privately to utter the simple sound 
again and again. Practice should then be given in 
pronouncing such words as these, those, thus; nets, 
pins, ends; saints, sue; baseless, passages, posses- 
sors; and finally the most difficult combination, when 
s is preceded by th, withstand, loathsome* 

Stammering, which manifests itself in the diffi- 
culty of uttering sounds of any kind, and stuttering, 
which causes the victim painfully to repeat a stub- 
born syllable, are hardly matters for which the 
teacher should assume responsibility. However, 
both are aggravated by excitement, nervousness, and 

* Kofler in his "Art of Breathing," pp. 250-252, gives detailed 
directions and a long list of words, from which the above are taken, 
for practice. 



ARTICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 155 

poor physical condition, and often induce sympa- 
thetic attacks in others who hear the one attempt- 
ing to talk. There are many "systems" by which 
cures are "guaranteed." But the late Sir Morrell 
Mackenzie declared that nothing can be done for a 
stammerer unless he learn to use his breath prop- 
erly — that is, under the direction of a master of the 
subject, and that "it is questionable whether there 
is any radical or permanent remedy except in the 
slighter cases" for the stutterer. Some help may 
be given by the professional who thoroughly under- 
stands the physiology and functions of the throat 
and tongue. But the school teacher can hardly be 
expected to do more than prevent aggravating ex- 
citement and insist on such a standard of perfec- 
tion as the child is capable of reaching. It is posi- 
tively harmful to insist on a child's trying to read 
or speak until the paroxysm has passed. Often 
concert work in reading, calisthenics, and singing are 
temporarily helpful. 

Dentition and Changing Voice 

Two physiological changes that enter into the life 
of the child more or less interfere with the reading 
work of the school, dentition and change of voice. 
Most children have little trouble in speaking while 
growing new teeth, though some find it exceedingly 
difficult to pronounce certain sounds. The teacher's 
main care at this time is to see that the child does 
not form bad habits of pronunciation that persist 
after the cause for them is removed. The period 



156 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

of voice change is attended by so many other physio- 
logical and nervous changes that it is a most trying 
time for both teacher and pupil. There is no dan- 
ger of a child's injuring his voice at this time in 
the reading class, or even in shouting at play, for 
that matter, so that fear need never be an excuse 
for his not reading. But it is easy to appreciate 
the embarrassment, especially of the boy, when the 
voice "breaks" and refuses to utter the sound in- 
tended. Much tact and firmness to prevent ridicule 
from other pupils, and charity that makes allow- 
ances for a failure to give expected shadings to 
tones, are all that the teacher needs for passing 
through this crisis with the pupil. 

It is far better and easier to form good habits than 
it is to correct bad ones. Any intelligent teacher 
knows, especially if he is experienced with children, 
what sounds will cause trouble. If he will take 
pains to teach the correct enunciation of these 
sounds and then to drill on them, he will make his 
future tasks easier in every respect. 

Drill 

Strange as it may seem, we acknowledge the im- 
portance of drill in practically everything except 
this most common and necessary function, the use 
of the human voice in speech. When a girl begins 
to take singing lessons, she as a matter of course 
undertakes interminable practice as well. Only after 
she has mastered at least some of the elements of 
tone production does the teacher permit her to sing 



AETICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 157 

songs. But few of us sing; whereas all of us talk. 
And if we are to talk well, we must practice, prac- 
tice, practice on the correct formation of sounds, 
crisp enunciation of them, and conventional pronun- 
ciation. Most people do not know how they should 
do these things, and if they did they would need a 
teacher to keep them at their drills. The price of 
improvement is drill, and for this the teacher is 
largely responsible. 

Vowel Sounds 

In the intermediate and grammar grades children 
should get purer vowel sounds than they have been 
accustomed to use, carefully distinguishing at least 
the elementary sounds as indicated by all diction- 
aries. In the unabridged dictionaries there is a dis- 
cussion of these sounds which will help the teacher 
to understand the physiology involved in their utter- 
ance. Practice should be given, for only a few min- 
utes at a time, until pure tones are got, both alone 
and in simple words.* 

Among many children the most serious difficulty 
is found with the short vowel sounds, e, i, o, there 
being an especially strong tendency to confuse the 
first two and to give o as a or aw. Be sure that 
the children understand the simple sound and then 
give drills on such words as — 

* Corson, in "The Voice and Spiritual Education," p. 75, declares 
that "the music of speech is chiefly in the vowels," and that "one 
great secret in forcible speech is that all the force be thrown upon 
the vowels." 



158 



BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



net 


knit 


pet 


pit 


pen 


pin 


ten 


tin 


century 


sin 


fence 


fin 


sense 


since 


tense 


tinsel 



enlarge 


instil 


erroneous 


irreligious 


dog 


frog 


log 


bog 


cog 


hog 


not 


strong 


hominy 


approximate 


long 


rot 



Other sounds that give difficulty with most chil- 
dren are u, a, and ou. 



you 


assume 


abate 


house 


pure 


opportunity 


America 


out 


duty 


staff 


dance 


round 


ensue 


pass 


prance 


about 


suit (compare soot) 


sofa 


south 


rout 


lute (compare loot) 


messiah 


mouth 


drown 



Of course these lists can be infinitely extended 
by the teacher, and hie may call on the children for 
help. Especially must the teacher be on the look- 
out for other vowel sounds that need attention. 

Consonants 

Then there are hard combinations of consonants 
and vowels* which need drill that they may escape 
the mouth without embarrassment. Such combina- 
tions are italicized in the words given below. These 
words, and others containing similar combinations, 
may be used for drill: ebb'd, robb'dst, hubble, 

* An extended list of these is given in Kofler's "Art of Breath- 
ing," pp. 235-240. Credit should be given for the list here re- 
corded. 



ARTICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 



159 



doubl'd, hubbies, robes, handles, hurd'n'd, hadst 
hreadths, fiedg'd, soft, twelfth, strug gl'd, sparkl'd, 
sixth, sect, respect, sylphs, healths, triumph' d, 
tempts, strength, precincts, hyacinths, precepts, 
depths, world, warmth, hursts, earths, shrunk, 
iess'n'd, lisps, grasp' d, strive, tastes, faiths, 
hreath'd, hathes, snatch' dst, prisms, whistl'd. 

Almost all words ending in -s, -d, -ed, or -t, -ing, 
-r, are profitable for practice, many people clipping 
the words before fully giving these sounds. At first 
the drill on these words needs be slow, so that the 
final consonant may be fully uttered. The failure 
to finish such words, as well as others, often shows 
itself in the child's spelling. When he writes ask 
for asks, or ast for asked, probably he records just 
what he says. 



arms 


asked 


inspect 


picking 


hits 


drowned 


text 


poor 


runs 


round 


swimming 


roar 


includes 


deduct 


going 


writer 


armed 


went 


looking 


sore 



Slurring 

From the lessons and the everyday talk of the 
children the teacher can easily make a list of words 
and phrases that are commonly slurred. Not only 
should these be practiced until easily enunciated, but 
the children should constantly be held up to the 
standard set by the drill. Illustrative are: geog- 
raphy, physiology, orthography, arithmetic, history, 



160 HEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

literature, zoology, meteorology, writing, predicate, 
transitive, participle, poetry, government, numer- 
ator, denominator, particularly , peculiarly, duel, li- 
brary, constitution, ashed, accompaniment, spiritual, 
responsibility, intellectual, inexplicable, diacritic ally , 
loathsome, withstand, booths, truly rural, went to 
town, strives to throw, sit at meat, boys ought, lasts 
till ten, predicate attribute, etc. Most of these are 
mispronounced because of pure carelessness, the ele- 
mental sounds and the combinations for the most 
part being easily uttered. Geography is little harder 
than g'og'aphy* 

The teacher should manage it so that all new or 
difficult words are mastered before the actual read- 
ing begins. Few things so break into the acquiring 
of thought or the appreciation of literature as the 
halt that is brought about by the unknown word. 
One way of avoiding this embarrassment is to use 
in the drill work the words that probably will give 
trouble. Before taking up for reading in the sixth 
grade Longfellow's "The Children's Hour," for in- 
stance, the teacher should be sure, through drill, 
that the children can pronounce without hesitation 
such words as : lower, occupations, Allegra, together, 
unguarded, devour, entwine, Bingen, banditti, mus- 
tache, dungeon, moulder. Perhaps even more of 
the words should be introduced into the pronuncia- 
tion exercise, for the danger lies in underdoing 
rather than in overdoing the preparation. 

* There are several collections of exercises, among them Boyce's 
"Enunciation and Articulation," a manual for schools. 



ARTICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 161 

Articulation, Enunciation, and Pronunciation 

There is a distinction between articulation, enun- 
ciation, and pronunciation that would as well be 
made here. We speak of the "organic functions of 
articulation, and its audible result, which we term 
enunciation. * * * To pronounce a word prop- 
erly implies that we enunciate correctly all its sylla- 
bles, articulate distinctly the sounds of its letters, 
and accent properly according to prevailing culti- 
vated usage." 

"A distinct enunciation is wholly dependent on the action 
of the organs, — on their positions and their movements, — on 
the force and precision of their execution. The breath, having 
been converted into sound by the use of the component por- 
tions of the larynx, passes on to be modified or articulated 
into definite forms by the various parts of the mouth, and 
by the action of the tongue."* 

The vast majority of people have grown into bad 
habits of breathing, and apparently try to talk with 
the least possible movement of the organs of articu- 
lation. Only fair results can be obtained unless the 
teacher can teach better breathing and a free play 
of the lips, tongue, and other organs used. 

Breathing Exercises 

In a book of this kind the exercises given for de- 
veloping the different organs used in oral reading 
must, of necessity, be few and the explanations brief. 
Only the most elementary exercises can be given, 

* Murdoek: Vocal Culture, pp. 5-6. 



162 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

but upon these all the more detailed exercises are 
based. This is particularly true of the exercises for 
breathing; only those are given which will enable 
the pupil to control his breath so that he may read 
through the long, sustained sentences and clauses 
with ease. No attempt is made to give those exer- 
cises which would use the staccato, crescendo, and 
other more involved qualities of voice, which fall 
within the province of the school of elocution, not 
the public school. 

Many pupils, when obliged to read before the 
class, feel that they have not "wind" or breath 
enough to complete the sentence. The following 
exercises, if carefully practiced for fifteen minutes 
each day, will remedy this. It is better not to work 
on these exercises for more than fifteen consecutive 
minutes, nor to practice them just after eating. All 
exercises for breathing, articulation, and enunciation 
should at some times be practiced before a large mir- 
ror. As a final word of caution, never make a posi- 
tive effort to raise the shoulders; the shoulders 
should simply turn backward. 

Exercise I. — Take a full breath, in the usual way, 
through the dilated nostrils. Hold the breath with 
the mouth closed for two or three seconds, then 
expel the breath through the mouth. The second 
day after beginning practice on this exercise, inhale 
and see how long, by the watch, the breath can be 
held. Notice the increased ability to hold the breath 
for longer periods as the work on this exercise pro- 
gresses. 



AETICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 163 

Inhale and hold the breath with mouth open. 

Inhale, hold breath, and strike sharp blows upon 
the chest with the flat of both hands. 

Exercise II. — Inhale quickly, exhale slowly. In- 
hale slowly, exhale quickly. Inhale quickly, exhale 
quickly. 

Exercise III. — Hands at the waist, thumbs for- 
ward, fingers pressing the small of the back each 
side of the spine. Direct the will to the muscles 
upon which the fingers rest. Throw muscles out as 
much as possible while inhaling the breath, taking 
care not to raise the shoulders. This exercise should 
fill the whole torso or trunk with a full breath. It 
is the exercise which should receive the most atten- 
tion, the others being preliminary but necessary. 
The breath should be expelled slowly, then quickly. 

It is understood that one practices all exercises 
in a standing position. 

Articulation Exercises 

Some simple drills that are used by expert in- 
structors in reading are added so that those teachers 
who desire the best results and who can find the 
time may have some definite suggestions to follow. 

Exercise I. — For giving the tongue flexibility: 
Trill the letter r continuously as long as possible, 
using as many pitches as the voice can compass. 
Begin at a low note and then trill on each as far as 
you can go. Many persons have to learn to do this, 
their tongues being stiff from poor usage. After 
this, try trilling without giving any vocalized sound. 



164 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

This will result in a noise like that of a covey of 
quail rising. 

Exercise II. — For giving the tongue flexibility: 
Touch the front upper teeth with the tip of the 
tongue, then move it as far to one side as possible, 
touching the molars ; then repeat on the other side. 
The same exercise from the lower teeth. Increase 
in speed and keep the lower jaw still. 

Exercise III. — For making the lips facile: Trill 
the lips as long as the breath holds out. Bepeat, 
ascending and descending the scale, giving one long 
trill for each tone. Repeat the trills without any 
vocalized sound, making a noise like a horse. 

Exercise IV. — For giving flexibility to the jaw, 
lips, and throat, sometimes called the "turkey ex- 
ercise": Say "gobble-gobble-gobble," repeating 
rapidly fifteen or twenty times. Give this on each 
note in the range of the voice, taking pains to keep 
the mouth well open and to let the lower jaw move 
freely. 

Exercise V. — For exercising several organs of 
articulation: Say "ip, it, ik," repeatedly, increasing 
in speed. Take care that each sound is clean cut 
and clear. 

Exercise VI. — For articulating several sounds 
that are often slighted: Give the sounds of b, g, 
and d, as in b-oy, g-et, and d-og. Eepeat them over 
and over, increasing the force and crispness. 

Exercise VII. — For opening the mouth. Insert a 
finger between the teeth and repeat e, a, do. With- 
draw the finger and repeat the vowels, keeping the 



AETICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 165 

jaw open as before. Insert two fingers and pro- 
ceed as before. Insert three and proceed. 

Tongue Tivisters 

The old-fashioned tongue-twisters are perhaps 
simpler and are as valuable in making the organs 
of enunciation facile as are finger exercises for piano 
players. Every one knows or can easily find exam- 
ples.* Several are added as illustrative: 

"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, 
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. 
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, 
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked ?" 

"Six slim, sleek, slick saplings." 

"Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran." 

*'A cup of coffee in a copper coffee pot." 

These are often repeated rapidly a number of 
times. But in all of these exercises, whether given 
rapidly or slowly, one must take time to get each 
word out clear and clean-cut. Say "a cup of," not 
"a-cup-a." 

* A number of tongue twisters are to be found in Miss Carolyn 
Wells's "Whimsey Anthology," pp. 37, 67, 72, 122, 124, and else- 
where. Two poems containing good material are Southey's "Cata- 
ract of Lodore" and Browning's "The Pied Piper of Hamelin. " 
The thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians and the first stanza of 
Tennyson's "Sir Galahad" are also good. 



166 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

"Betty Botter bought some butter; 
'But/ said she, 'this butter's bitter. 
If I put it in my batter, 
It will make my batter bitter.' 
So she bought a bit of butter, 
Better than her bitter butter, 
Made her bitter batter better. 
Then 'twas better Betty Botter 
Bought a bit of better butter." 

"When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw." 

"Tho' oft the ear the open vowels tire." 

"Amidst the mists and coldest frosts, 
With barest wrists and stoutest boasts, 
He thrusts his fists against the posts, 
And still insists he sees the ghosts." 

"Some shun sunshine and some shun shade." 

"Alone, alone, all, all alone." 

"Down dropt the sails, the sails dropt down." 

"She sells sea shells, sea shells sells she." 

"An owl uttered an awful outcry in an old empty attic all 
out of order." 

Original Exercises 

Such tongue-twisters appeal peculiarly to children 
in the intermediate and early 'grammar grades, and 
consequently they often seize upon them with 
avidity and give them much more practice than the 



AKTICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 167 

teacher expects. In one school the eighth grade 
became so much interested in this drill and appar- 
ently profited by it so much that the teacher encour- 
aged them to compose original jingles which should 
give practice on all the letters of the alphabet. To 
illustrate what almost any school can do, we append 
a few that were brought in. 

"Daisy Daly doted on David Dickens. David Dickens de- 
cided that David didn't dote on Daisy Daly; so David Dick- 
ens disappointed Daisy Daly by doting on Dorothy Daugh- 

erty." 

"Fickle Frank fought fifty-five fist-fights. After Frank 
fought fifty-five fist-fights, funny Fanny fried fickle Frank 
five finny fish. Funny Fanny's five finny fish filled fickle 
Frank full." 

"Monday morning Nancy Manning noticed Mandy May 
making Martha Menke a mat. Nancy moved noiselessly 
away. Next noon Martha missed her mat." 

"Mary's mamma had many mice. Mary's mamma's mice 
spilt mamma's mush and Mary's mamma mentioned that mice 
make much muss." 

"Pretty Patty petted Polly, 
Polly petted Patty's pet; 
Presently the patter pouted, 
And the petting was upset." 

"Quaint Quentin quickly quarreled with the queer, quizzi- 
cal Quaker queen." 



IQg BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

"Thirsty Thisby thrust a thick thistle through the thriftless 
but thriving Theophilus's thigh." 

"Venerable Vernon vended a variety of valuable valentines 
to vagrant visitors at Venice." 

While composing these jingles the children became 
interested in the way sounds are made, and thus 
they easily learned the general classes of conso- 
nants : the labials, the palatals, the dentals, the aspi- 
rates, and the liquids. This proved of some help to 
them later in learning to place and utter difficult 
combinations of sounds. The teacher who is inter- 
ested in the subject will find a detailed discussion 
in The Guide to Pronunciation of the International 
Dictionary, pages ixl — xlvii. 

The Voice 

Good reading does not require a loud or shrill 
voice. Indeed, those qualities are often the very 
ones that stand most in the way of excellence. If 
articulation and enunciation are good, the voice is 
apt to "carry" well without shrillness or loudness; 
but if it be shrill or loud without good articulation 
and enunciation, it reaches the hearer merely as 
a noise, without conveying sense. If a reader or 
speaker chooses a person in the most remote part 
of the room and tries to make him hear, takes his 
time, and throws his voice carefully at this hearer, 
it is probable that everyone in the room will know 
what he is saying. But if the reader forgets that 



ARTICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 169 

his aim is to give the thought to someone else, if he 
becomes hurried, or if he fails to take proper pains 
in articulating each syllable, it is almost certain that 
his reading will fail. 

Not infrequently there are pupils in school whom 
it is almost impossible to hear ten feet away. They 
mumble through their recitations on every subject 
so that the teacher must guess at what they mean 
and must interpret what they say if he wishes the 
rest of the class to understand. This is all wrong, 
confirming such pupils in what is merely a bad habit 
and wasting a great deal of valuable time. There is 
not a normal child in the schools who can not be 
heard if he tries to be. The teacher must have this 
matter out once for all; it is foolish to permit it to 
run on and on in wicked wastefulness of the time 
of everyone. Explain the purpose of reading and 
reciting — that it is to make some one else hear and 
understand. Then kindly but firmly insist that this 
be accomplished, or count what is done no recita- 
tion. Sometimes it is well to exaggerate conditions 
for such a pupil, — have him read from a distant 
corner of the room and such like. 

The charge is often made that American voices 
are loud, harsh, and generally unpleasant. Unfor- 
tunately, there is much truth in the charge, as one 
can easily prove by listening to the conversation 
about him. Often the singing in schools is so loud 
and shrill as to defeat many of the ends for which 
it is introduced. The teacher should especially insist 
on sweetness and clearness, in class and out. 



170 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Example is the best guide; but private admonition 
and advice should be used constantly, and a high 
standard of excellence demanded in the class room. 
Lear's praise of his dead daughter should be 
deserved by every one who aspires to her other high 
qualities. 

"Her voice was ever soft, 
Gentle, and low, — an excellent thing in woman. ' ' 

The different degrees of clearness and sweetness 
that we hear in different schoolrooms proves that 
firmness and patience and example may accomplish 
wonders with the voices of children.* 

How One Girl Learned 

An anonymous writer in Collier's Weekly (June 
6, 1908), tells autobiographically of "The Making of 
an Actress. ' ' A part of her experience is so apropos 
here that it is quoted in all of its breeziness to con- 
clude this discussion.f 

"If he (the star) had six hours for conversation, he could 
spend it all in talking about the horrible way in which I 
spoke. Pronunciation, enunciation, accent, inflection, all 
were marred and jarred. He enumerated a list of words that 

* Those who are interested in that kind of elocution 
which treats of Elements, tonic and others; Quality; Force; Stress; 
Melody; Time; Emphasis; et cetera, will find it set forth with 
copious exercises in the Murdock-Eussell "Vocal Culture," which is 
founded upon Dr. Hush's "Philosophy of the Human Voice." It 
should hardly be necessary for the authors to say that they do not 
believe such apparatus is valuable in the common school. 

f Used by special permission of P. & F. Collier. 



ARTICULATION AND ENUNCIATION 171 

he had to endure, rendered in my Pennsylvania style. Every- 
thing ending in V was damned, of course. He said I said 
'river-rrrrrrrr' ; one-syllabled words I made two, like 'their/ 
which I called 'they-er/ and two-syllabled words I made one, 
like 'very.' 

" 'The audience must wonder what language you're speak- 
ing,' he said. 'It's neither English, nor Dutch, nor Hindu. 
You'll have to learn to speak your mother-tongue before you'll 
get on, on the stage.' 

"He advised me to practice every day, reading aloud from 
a book or newspaper, deliberately pronouncing every word 
carefully by syl-la-bles. I must not say 'Uni' States,' but 
'United States,' without clipping. Lastly he gave me a list 
of trick sentences upon which to practice my voice for fluency 
and accuracy. I remember that list yet. Heaven knows I 
ought to know them, ifter a year's practice in season and out 
of season. Here are some of them : 

" 'It was indubitably an abominable eccentricity.' 
" 'The incomprehensibility of the article, etymologically 
considered, is evident.' 

" 'She uttered a sharp, shrill shriek and shrank from the 
enshrouded shrine.' 

" 'She stood at the gate, welcoming him in.' 
" 'The listlessness and laziness of the frivolous.' 
" 'Every government has its history.' 
" 'The elements of our language include consonants.' 
" 'Councillors should be particularly superior.' 
" 'The miserable accompaniment is unnecessary and intol- 
erable.' 

"Of course, I had chattered off those 'Peter Prangle, the 
prickly, prangly pear-picker' absurdities, 'Peter Piper/ and 
'She sells sea-shells/ and that sort of thing, often enough in 
fun when I was a girl. But this was in deadly earnest. Why, 



172 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

even to pronounce 'tel-e-phone' and 'ev-i-dent' properly was 
no easy task. I read aloud for three hours a day, and I prac- 
ticed trilling my Vs' till my tongue was flexible. Then I 
studied enunciation, speaking in front of a hand mirror till 
my lips were as mobile as Margaret Illington's. Have you 
ever heard her say — no, I mean seen her say : 'Oh, Richard, 
fan-cy be-ing CHUCKED' ? A deaf man in the third gallery 
could get the words. 

"I tried for light and shade and color, to get every word 
out crisp, to avoid monotony. I studied the weights of words, 
pauses, and all the different ways of getting an effect over the 
footlights. I tried to digest every sentence till it was really 
a part of my thought and emotion." 

The story in its continuation tells how this woman 
succeeded. What she did with her voice anyone 
under forty years of age and iot deformed in the 
organs of articulation can do. But it takes work, 
long-repeated drill, and unflagging patience. 



CHAPTER XVII 

The Use of the Dictionary 

The habit of using the dictionary becomes so 
increasingly valuable as one grows older that it 
should be fixed early in life. Some teachers advo- 
cate dictionary drill with children as early as the 
end of the third school year; others postpone the 
time one or two years. In an average school it 
seems that this work should be undertaken near the 
beginning of the fourth year, as soon as such phonics 
as are used in reading are fairly well mastered. 

It is unreasonable to suppose that children will 
learn to use a dictionary either habitually or well 
without instruction. Indeed, there are many teach- 
ers and owners of unabridged dictionaries who do 
neither. Such instruction as is outlined here can 
not, of course, be given all at once ; it must be dealt 
out to the children as they need it, each part receiv- 
ing drill enough to secure accuracy and speed. Some 
of the suggestions seem exceedingly simple: maybe 
they are to grown folk; but they have to be given 
children at some time and in some form. 

The First Step 

In the first place, the children must either have 
learned m the lower grades or they must be taught 

173 



174 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

now the letters of the alphabet in order, the diacrit- 
ical markings of letters and their sound, syllabica- 
tion, and accent. Much has been said — and justly — 
against emphasizing the alphabet in teaching chil- 
dren to read. But in dictionary and similar work 
there is a need, perhaps the only one in life, for one 
to know the arbitrary order of the letters. More 
than being able to repeat the twenty-six symbols 
rapidly, one should be able to say without pause in 
what direction, either forward or back, one letter is 
related to another. He is looking in the dictionary, 
for instance, for levity, and opens the book at p. 
Without hesitation he should know that his word lies 
earlier in the book. Drill, then, both in saying the 
alphabet straight through and in telling the relation 
of one letter to others, taking pains that this latter 
fact may be known without the delay of repeating 
orally or mentally any part of the alphabet. 

Exact Sounds 

With children an approximation to the proper 
sound indicated by the various diacritical markings, 
which must all be known, is all that can be expected 
or demanded. Not one person in a great many hun- 
dred ever attains to anything like accuracy in the 
matter. It will be illuminating for the teacher to 
study the discussion in the International Dictionary, 
pp. lvi — lxxi, and then to give some of the more 
important results to the older pupils. But unless a 
teacher become keenly interested in the subject, lie 
would better confine himself to the explanation as 



USE OF THE DICTIONAKY 175 

indicated in the key words at the bottom of the page. 
The teacher should be very careful, however, that 
his own understanding and pronunciation of each 
sound is approximately correct; for otherwise he 
will initiate into the children bad habits that they 
may never outgrow. Let the teacher pronounce to 
himself very slowly and distinctly the eight common 
sounds of a, for instance. If he is not able to dis- 
tinguish each from all the others, he probably needs 
help. Some vowel sounds that are very likely to be 
given incorrectly are a, staff, pass, command, sofa, 
messiah ; o, orange, dog, off, foreign, song ; ou, south, 
house, mouth ; u, pure, blue, suit, lute, assume, oppor- 
tunity. Not a few people who pride themselves on 
speaking well will make mistakes in pronouncing 
these common words. If they do so, it should make 
them suspicious of their pronunciation of more diffi- 
cult combinations. 

Syllabication 

Syllabication (or syllabification, the word having 
both forms) is a matter about which the amateur can 
not in many cases be at all certain without reference 
to the dictionary, there being so many and such com- 
plex rules and numerous exceptions. The pupil can 
be taught the broad rules, however, and, what is 
more important here, how to pronounce a word in 
syllables when they are indicated. This is a very 
much simpler matter. And, finally, he should be 
taught how to place the accent. An experienced and 
successful teacher says that even after children 



176 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

know what accent is and can pronounce with some 
facility, they are often helpless in placing the accent 
orally for themselves even when its place is indi- 
cated. Good training for overcoming this is to give 
for drill words that are spelled alike, but accented 
differently (gallant, gallant"; in'cense, incense'; 
ab'sent, absent';) and words, the accent of which is 
shifted by the addition of suffixes (his'tory, his- 
torical; po'tent, potential, potentiality; inform, 
information; finite, infinite; serve', reserve', reserva- 
tion). 

Pronunciation 

With this foundation, the children should be 
drilled for speed in pronunciation. At first they will 
need to go very slowly, valuing each sound and pro- 
nouncing each syllable by itself, and pronouncing the 
whole word again for smoothness and for the proper 
placing of the accent. This drill should be continued, 
however, until considerable speed and perfect accu- 
racy are acquired. Finally the children may be 
tested in reading some matter in which the pronun- 
ciation of every word is indicated diacritically.* 

Being sure, then, that the children know these four 

* The G. and C. Merriam Co., Springfield, Massachusetts, issue 
two booklets as advertisements that will prove useful in this 
kind of work: "A Visit to the Deering High School" and "An 
Orthoepic Melange." These booklets are suited only, however, 
for children in the upper grades or high school. In addition to 
these, they publish a "Chart of English Sounds" and a small book, 
''The Dictionary Habit," from which some of the points in this 
treatment of the dictionary are taken. The Merriam Co. will send 
sets of this material for classes free upon request. 



USE OF THE DICTIONARY 177 

things, the teacher may set them to work practically 
with the book. If each child does not own a dic- 
tionary — and this he should do very early — any book 
that has in it alphabetized lists of words may be 
used. First the children should understand why the 
words are arranged alphabetically. Then, with this 
principle in mind, they are set to find p, 1, t, i, m, etc. 
It should be insisted on that they think first before 
they turn a single page. With the book held between 
the two hands, back on the desk, and the child's 
thumbs on the edge, it can be opened easily and 
quickly one way or the other. One teacher remarked 
to the children in this drill: "I am interested in 
seeing how few leaves you turn." 

After the pupils gain some facility in finding the 
given letter, let them find short words, like dog, man, 
cat, cab, gun, having them use the first two letters 
as a guide. Then, probably, a drill in searching for 
words beginning with re, dis, trans, circum (receive, 
recall; disagree, disappoint; transmit, transit; cir- 
cumference, circumflex) will best show them how the 
arrangement according to alphabetical order extends 
to the very end of the word. Finally, attention is 
called to the help that may be derived from the catch 
words at the top of each page. Is the one on the 
left-hand page selected from anywhere on the page? 
How? Is the one on the right-hand page selected in 
the same way! The spirit of contest entering into 
this drill often gives almost incredible speed. 

A splendid review of phonics may be had here by 
giving orally words for the children to find, espe- 



178 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

cially when there are several ways of spelling the 
sound (fancy, phantasm; castle, keel; etc.) And 
here, too, spelling forms that are difficult to remem- 
ber may be fixed in the mind by the child 's searching 
for them and recalling where they are found in the 
dictionary. 

At first, for a brief time, children should be drilled 
only on finding words ; then on pronunciation, too.* 
Give the children to look up lists of unusual and 
long words and words that are commonly broadly 
mispronounced in the community. These words are 
best in that they demand care and close attention 
and in that they interest all of the class by their 
novelty. In the upper grades gradually insist on 
the finer points of purity and correctness. 

Before proceeding to the definitions it will be nec- 
essary to teach what some of the abbreviations 
mean, especially those that indicate parts of speech. 
When the children know where the abbreviations are 
explained, they may of course be expected to help 
themselves thereafter. 

Definition 

In some dictionaries definitions are given in their 
historical order ; in others, in the order of their fre- 
quency of use. To find the order of definition, either 

* It is becoming in a teacher, it may be here remarked, to sub- 
mit with all grace when his accustomed pronunciation is proved 
wrong. Stubbornness and explanations that do not explain set a 
bad example, to say the least. No one, probably, pronounces all 
words correctly. 



USE OF THE DICTIONARY 179 

read the preface to the book, if the explanation is 
given there, or look up the order of definitions of 
some word the history of which you know. For 
instance, knave originally meant boy, then servant, 
then a rogue or villain, and finally a playing card 
also. It is helpful to know the order of definition 
that each dictionary uses, or one will sometimes be 
misled. 

Often several definitions are given for a word, 
and one is in doubt which one to choose and is puz- 
zled to know why the dictionary maker did not con- 
fine himself to one meaning. If one has tried to use 
a small dictionary to any extent, he has found how 
unsatisfactory it is just on this account; the single 
definition given is often not at all the meaning that 
one wishes. Usually when a person consults a dic- 
tionary it is not for the common meaning of the 
word, which he as well as nearly everybody else 
knows ; it is for the unusual shade of meaning with 
which he is largely unfamiliar. Why words have so 
many meanings is a long story, much of which is 
very interestingly told in Greenough and Kittredge's 
"Words and Their Ways in English Speech," espe- 
cially in Chapters IV, VI, XVII, and XVIII. 

It would be foolish to send a child to the dictionary 
to look up a word like turn, which has fifteen mean- 
ings. Probably he would have no interest in the 
matter, and certainly he would be confused. He 
should be sent to the dictionary to find what a word 
means when it occurs in a sentence that he can not 



180 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

understand or the exact shade of meaning of which 
he does not get. A little help from the teacher and 
practice will show him the great help that he can 
get from the illustrative sentences. To most people 
hearing or seeing a word used tells more about its 
meaning, particularly its exact meaning, than any 
number of definitions could. But the definition and 
illustration is the perfect and sure method. A child 
should be required to recite not the definition just 
as the dictionary has given it, but rather in his own 
words and then to illustrate it in a sentence of his 
own making. What the child needs is to assimilate 
the word so that he can use it himself, — not merely 
to remember a formal definition temporarily. 

The first drills in definitions should be given on 
well-known words that have only a few meanings; 
then on strange words with, preferably, a single defi- 
nition; then, finally, on words that have a larger 
number of meanings, the pupil deciding which one 
he needs by the context of the sentence in which it 
occurred to him. 

For older students exact meaning is often fixed by 
contrasting the word with its synonyms. No two 
words mean precisely the same thing, and the differ- 
ences in meaning are often made very clear in the 
larger dictionaries, both by explanation and by illus- 
tration. If a pupil is hazy in his comprehension of 
a word that he has already "looked up," ask him 
how it differs from some synonym. By this means 
his ideas of both words may be made definite. 



USE OF THE DICTIONARY 181 

Grammar and Good Usage 

Sometimes one goes to the dictionary for help on 
grammar and good usage. There he will find, of 
course, what the editors have judged by careful his- 
torical study and by wide travel, correspondence, 
reading, and observation to be the forms and mean- 
ings confirmed by the best usage. In matters of 
form it is wise to take the judgment of the dictionary 
without question : here are the principal parts of 
strong and irregular weak verbs, here irregular or 
difficult plurals of nouns, and the like. But when it 
comes to grammatical usage, to what part of speech 
a word belongs and whether a verb is transitive or 
not, the dictionary naturally is inadequate and not 
decisive. At most, it can be merely suggestive, indi- 
cating what some one else thinks. The final court 
of appeal in all matters of grammatical usage is the 
understanding and judgment of each student. As to 
matters of rhetoric, it must be remembered that, as 
someone has said, "the dictionary is a home for the 
living, a hospital for the dying, and a cemetery for 
the dead." It is the intention of the editors to mark 
the words of the second class "obsolescent," and 
those of the third "obsolete." The dictionary also 
includes many words that are frequently heard but 
which have not succeeded in getting into good com- 
pany in all sections of the country. These are 
marked "colloquial." 

How much shall be done with etymology depends 
upon the teacher's interest in and knowledge of the 



182 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

subject. In the large majority of cases, very little. 
It is unfortunate, however, that pupils are not given 
an opportunity to learn the very fascinating deriva- 
tion and history of such words as infantry, treacle, 
candidate, amethyst, nasturtium, deer, pig, etc. "A 
number of words that illustrate the importance of 
etymological study" are listed in "The Mother 
Tongue," (Ginn & Co.) II. 321: 

Anticipate, surreptitious, convince, dilapidated, secure, 
ponder, fiscal, redound, equivocation, edify, solution, sinecure, 
discuss, collateral, circumstance, depend, consent, oblivion, 
martial, insult, reluctant, transfix, pretext, abstract, insinuate, 
exposition, explanation, repulsion, redeem, subtraction, tor- 
ture, tradition, conclusion, innuendo, exaggeration, aggrava- 
tion, obvious, superannuated, negative, disturbance, implica- 
tion, supercilious, encourage (compare dishearten), real, 
science, reveal (compare revelation), jeopardy, adventure, 
agreeable, engagement, feature. 

Anderson's little book, "A Study of English 
Words" (American Book Company), is good and 
interesting; but better and more full is Greenough 
and Kittredge's "Words and Their Ways in English 
Speech" (Macmillan). Even the old Swinton's 
i ' Word Analysis, ' ' however dry it proved, was better 
than nothing; and in the hands of one who is gen- 
uinely interested in the subject often takes on vig- 
orous life. Some of the spelling books pay particular 
attention to word analysis. Among those that do 
are : Cavins, Orthography, C. M. Parker, publisher ; 
Bowen, English Words as Spoken and Written, 



USE OF THE DICTIONARY 183 

Globe School Book Co. ; Kennedy, What Words Say ; 
and Reed & Kellogg, Word Building, Maynard, Mer- 
rill & Co. 

Introduction and Appendices 

Most people seldom or never consult any part of 
the dictionary except the body, of which we have 
been speaking, and that imperfectly. Beyond that 
there is almost a library of material in the introduc- 
tion and various appendices. One who has access to 
any large dictionary should at once learn what it 
contains, and then its use and value will probably 
be multiplied many fold. A woman once inquired, 
with an unabridged dictionary at her very hand, for 
a good history of the English language. Teachers by 
looking over the contents of the dictionary can 
supply excellent drills on the pronunciation of 
proper names, the meaning of foreign phrases, vari- 
ous characters in fiction, etc., etc., etc. 

The Dictionary Habit 

A teacher should by all means get the dictionary 
habit. He should read with a dictionary at hand, 
looking up words frequently. This is common sense. 
If a dictionary is not immediately accessible, he 
should jot down on a piece of paper words that he 
wishes to look up. This is not so good, however, as 
going at the matter while the interest is keen. Make 
the dictionary a friend and constant helper; cease 
using it as a terrifying adornment to the desk. 



184 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

That every school room should contain an 
unabridged dictionary goes without saying, at least 
one state having gone so far as to require this by 
statute. It is likewise very important that each 
teacher and pupil should own a dictionary. When 
the question of which dictionary arises, it almost 
answers itself. The New English Dictionary and 
the Century are too voluminous to be considered in 
any but the largest schools; Worcester's is steadily 
losing what ground it does hold; and the Standard 
has not found the footing that many expected it to 
take. 

On the other hand, the International Dictionary 
has made constant improvement in value and is 
almost universally used. Unfortunately our copy- 
right laws have permitted during the past few years 
many imitations of both the name Webster and the 
contents of the old editions of Webster's diction- 
aries. These have been edited by men who make no 
pretensions to scholarship and have been put on the 
market at ridiculously low prices. It is said that 
there are more than fifty imitations of the Webster 
dictionaries on the market today. Consequently 
many purchasers who really wish the best dictionary 
are so confused as to buy a book that is relatively 
worthless. For this reason, we list the geniune 
Webster books and their publishers. 

The New International Dictionary, which is the 
unabridged edition, and the Webster's Collegiate 
Dictionary are published by the G. & C. Merriam 
Co., Springfield, Massachusetts. For desk purposes, 



USE OF THE DICTIONARY 185 

the Collegiate, either in the regular or in the thin 
paper edition, is thoroughly satisfactory. 

The American Book Company publishes the other 
editions of the Webster books, all bearing the Mer 
riam imprint. These books run from the Academic, 
down through the High School, Common School, 
Primary, and Handy editions. 

Teachers hold that pupils should own dictionaries 
not earlier than the fourth grade nor later than the 
sixth. Which edition should they buy? In most 
cases, the largest that they can afford. Most people 
never buy a second dictionary, going through life 
with the primary book of their childhood ! There is 
such demand that even the small dictionaries contain 
a large number of words that the publishers are 
forced to make every sacrifice to effect this end. The 
definitions are less and less elaborate and helpful 
until they become hardly more than synonyms. More 
than this, the first definitions dropped are usually 
the very ones for which we look, those that are 
unusual and therefore needed. In smaller editions 
than the Collegiate no illustrative sentences are 
given; the Academic is the smallest book that gives 
synonyms as such and etymology; the Handy does 
not even syllabicate. Consequently, children should 
be urged to buy an edition as complete as the 
Academic, or better still, the Collegiate, which will 
satisfy almost every want of a lifetime. 



CHAPTEE XVIII 

Reading and Literature 

The material for reading lessons may, as has 
already been suggested, be either non-literary or 
literary. The latter kind is, and should be, most 
frequently used in the reading period, chiefly be- 
cause it is likely to make greater demands on the 
reader. The dictinctions that have been made* 
regarding the various kinds of reading and the ends 
to be secured should be had clearly in mind at all 
times. If the reading of literature differ from the 
reading of mere informational matter, both pupil 
and teacher must appreciate the literary basis, must 
themselves feel the emotion which is to be awakened 
through literature. 

Nothing is literature in or of itself. A poem or a 
story is merely the medium through which the feeling 
that possessed an author is transferred to a reader. 
If the reader get from the masterpiece no emotion, 
only information, he has found no literature, what- 
ever critics may say is there. Hence it is that not 
infrequently readers disagree as to the merits of 
some literary composition: the creation is not com- 
plete until the reader bring to it not only the under- 
standing brain but the appreciative heart as well. 

* See page 16 f . 

186 



BEADING AND LITERATURE 187 

An Essential of Literature 

What literature is, one can hardly say: it can be 
illustrated rather than defined. The many attempted 
definitions are more confusing than helpful : one who 
does not know that Shelley's "Cloud" is literature 
and that "Thirty days hath September" is not, can 
hardly be helped by mere formal definition. There 
are many elements that enter, in varying propor- 
tions, into literature ; but only one of them, all critics 
agree, is absolutely necessary — that is, suggestive- 
ness. Whatever else a set of verses may possess, 
they can not claim to rank as literature unless they 
suggest — or, to use the technical term, connote — to 
the reader far more than they say. 

It is evident, upon the slightest thought, that even 
a disconnected word does not always mean the same 
thing to us — rather, that at some times it means 
infinitely more than at others. A word means — that 
is, denotes — the same thing at all times to all people ; 
but it may suggest, or connote, not only more to one 
person than it does to another, but also more to the 
same person at one time than it does at another. 

Some words are almost always denotative to 
everybody. ' ' Triangle, ' ' for instance, and ' ' July 1 ' ' 
are likely to mean one and the same thing to every- 
one at every time. "Home," on the other hand, will 
have a common basis of meaning, but beyond that it 
will connote to every one a wealth of ideas dependent 
upon his experience or his mood. It may bring up 
to the mind's eye an image of the home in its many 



188 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

details, it may suggest many tender associations, 
and hence it may awaken emotions of varying depth. 
Other words, like "spring" and "July 4," are 
denotative or connotative according as they awaken 
in the reader a bare idea or that idea accompanied 
by a train of memories and emotions. In proportion, 
then, as words tend to awaken suggested and related 
thoughts and feelings, we say they are literary. 

If words may possess this quality when standing 
alone, how much more of it they may have when 
cunningly associated into more expressive groups ! 
Wordsworth chose as the subject of a short poem a 
girl reaping grain alone and singing, a subject that 
might or might not be poetic to the passer-by. He 
suggested some poetry in the situation by his title, 
"The Solitary Eeaper." But when wondering of 
what she sings he says : 

"Will no one tell me what she sings ? — 
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow 
For old, unhappy, far-off things 
And battles long ago" — 

then he contrives to carry over to every reader a 
suggestion of the mysterious beauty of the song. In 
like manner Keats appeals connotatively to all who 
have any poetry in their beings when he writes of the 
nightingale's song: 

"Perhaps the self-same song that found a path 

Through the sad heart of Euth, when, sick for home, 
She stood in tears amid the alien corn; 



READING AND LITERATURE 189 

The same that oft-times hath 
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam 
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn." 

It is possible, of course, that one may read these 
lines without getting from them any emotion what- 
ever ; but if he should, however clear the denotative 
meaning, however, good the articulation, enuncia- 
tion, and pronunciation, the reading of this as liter- 
ature is worthless. 

The Process of Composition 

That we may understand better what is necessary 
in appreciating literature we should understand 
somewhat the process by which it is composed. In 
the first place the author, whether poet or prose 
writer, must through his genius or through hard 
work see life in some of its phases more clearly than 
his fellow men do. Then this phase of life, whether 
of humanity or of nature, usually relates itself in 
his mind with his former experience, with his whole 
conception of life. This naturally fills him with 
such emotion that he wishes to share his feelings 
with others. And finally, that he may accomplish 
his end, he chooses just the form and the words that 
he judges will not only say what he means but also 
suggest what he feels. 

Eeading literature, then, demands first that one 
understand the bare meaning. This meaning recalls 
former experiences and associates them in such a 
way as to excite the imagination and finally to 



190 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

awaken in the reader emotions similar to those that 
originally possessed the author. Clearly, then, if 
one is to read literature, he must secure from the 
printed page the thought and the feeling. If he is 
to read it aloud, how can he make others feel as the 
author did unless he himself do so first? 

The Basis of Appreciative Reading 

The fundamental requirement, then, for the appre- 
ciative oral reading of all literature is that the reader 
shall himself be filled with the emotion that possessed 
the author and that he has endeavored to convey 
through his work. 

The last sentence contains the fundamental notion 
in all true reading of literature. But, just as there 
are hundreds of emotions — simple and complex, 
slightly felt and profound — so there will be a corre- 
sponding number of appeals to our literary sense. 
One piece of literature may move us to tears, another 
draw spontaneous laughter, and a third inspire us 
with the noblest of aims. In Browning's "How 
They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix" 
we first realize what a tremendous feat the horse 
accomplished with apparent appreciation of the 
importance of the errand, and then we admire him 
as a hero; in Southey's "Battle of Blenheim" we 
learn how much suffering is caused by war and how 
baseless is the admiration of it by those who make it 
possible and suffer most from it; Lowell's "First 
Snowfall" brings the tears to our eyes as we 
sympathize with the father whose little girl lies 



BEADING AND LITERATURE 191 

under the snow; in Lanier's "Song of the Chatta- 
hoochee" are given us the pictures along the 
stream's course, the sound of its waters, and a 
suggestion of how it feels as it slips out of the 
mountains and down to the sea. Thus each poem 
centers about its own ideas and emotions. Each 
must be read in its own way; each must have its 
effect, which, of necessity, differs from all others. 

The Whole and Its Details 

Hence it is that often a piece of literature can not 
be appreciated at the first reading, however careful 
it may be. That may serve as a sort of preliminary 
survey, which must be followed by closer attention 
to details. It is the glory of true literature that, if 
the general view be had first, it will yield more and 
more pleasure as the reflective eye searches out its 
hidden wealth. But a formal recitation on detail 
after detail, without an understanding or an appre- 
ciation of what the whole poem is all about, usually 
deadens appreciation and enjoyment beyond hope 
of revival. 

Such recitation on details is about as appreciative 
as a study of the single stones in a cathedral would 
be of the beauty of the building. It is not for a 
moment denied that the stones have interesting 
histories, wonderful structure, and a kind of beauty 
in themselves ; however, each stone is used not for 
its own sake but for what it can contribute to the 
building as a whole. In like manner, words have 
interest in themselves, but they are usually written 



192 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

into a poem for what contribution they can make to 
the dominant impression. The beauty and interest 
of the detail should be appreciated, but chiefly as 
contributory to a general effect. The study of 
literature as well as of architecture should begin and 
end with a general survey. 

This constitutes one difficulty in the study of 
literature. Many readers who are bound by some 
" method," or "outline for study," rebel at being 
called on to find each time for themselves what 
emotion is dominant and to respond fittingly to the 
emotional appeal. Many, indeed, are frankly unable 
to do this; and so, of course, are unable to read 
literature. As has been said before, there is no 
appreciative reading of connotative material unless 
the reader contribute quite as much as the author. 

Readers Vary 

Not only does literature make a diversity of 
appeals, but it will have very different reactions 
upon readers. In the first place, readers differ 
widely in experience — both in extent and in intensity. 
Some have seen mountains and the ocean, for in- 
stance, and some have not. Some have suffered 
keenly from grief, while others have lived lives of 
sheltered happiness. Some are subject to violent 
fits of temper ; others, still, move forward as calmly 
as the "precession of the equinoxes." And even 
among those who have apparently had the same 
experiences, there will be, upon reflection, the widest 
differences. Two men have seen mountains, but how 



READING AND LITERATURE 193 

differently! — one with a bare recognition of big 
hills; the other with the unforgetting eye of appre- 
ciation, both of the whole grand picture and of the 
equally marvelous detail. Likewise two men have 
been bereaved in life. One submits to fate stolidly; 
the other suffers with indescribable pangs the 
' ' slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. ' ' And so 
with all experiences whatsoever, the reactions will 
vary with all men between the two extremes. This 
being true, no two readers will get exactly the same 
from any piece of literature. An understanding of 
this fact will make teaching more intelligent. 

It must constantly be remembered that children 
have had relatively few experiences and most of 
these of a more of less superficial kind. The reading 
of literature will deepen their understanding of what 
they pass through and also give them a kind of 
vicarious experience that is extremely necessary in 
broadening life. But they cannot be expected to 
understand and appreciate numerous experiences 
that to the adult are every-day events. Literature 
of adult passions, for instance, or that filled with the 
ideas of immortality, can not possibly be read 
intelligently by a child. He may get something, 
some of the minor elements, from Coleridge's 
"Genevieve," Whittier's "Barefoot Boy," Brown- 
ing's "Pro spice," or even Eugene Field's "Little 
Boy Blue," — but surely not that emotion which lies 
at the core of each poem. The words are simple 
enough, but the experiences that they present are 
utterly beyond children in the grades. Tennyson's 



194 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

"Sir Galahad," on the other hand, presents many 
difficulties in diction, but the emotions at the heart 
of the poem are readily responded to by boys and 
girls in the upper grades. If a child reads literature 
sufficiently well from his own understanding, it must 
treat either of his own experiences or of such others 
as he can easily imagine and comprehend from what 
he has seen and done. This is one, but not the only, 
explanation why children often fail to like poems 
that seem to us very beautiful. 

Then, too, men vary widely in their ability to 
recall through the imagination their experiences. In 
many cases of course, this is due, as noted before, to 
the different intensities of experiences. But there 
is also a great variation in the way experiences that 
are practically the same are relived. Several girls 
have been in a runaway. Years afterwards the 
incident is recalled by one as a hazy memory with 
no emotion; by another with great distinctness of 
detail, but with no emotion ; two others feel almost 
the same physical fright and pain in recalling the 
incident that they felt at the time, yet one remembers 
the details minutely and the other with no exactness 
at all. 

Reading Requires Time 

Still another element enters into this imaginative 
appreciation — time. It takes time for the brain 
to sound profundities or appreciate subtleties of 
thought and for the imagination to recall the details 
of experiences, both physical and emotional. One 



BEADING AND LITERATURE 195 

memory recalls another, and that in turn awakens a 
third which has lain asleep perhaps for years. Few 
minds can revivify the fringes of memory, if the 
term may be used, by a rapid or careless reading. 
What the author has written with careful and happy 
art must be read with care and leisure. Sometimes 
a stanza of four lines will require far more time than 
a whole novel. Tennyson's ''Flower in the Crannied 
Wall" and Lowell's "Ode Recited at the Harvard 
Commemoration" are poems that require not only 
maturity but also much time for understanding and 
appreciation. Although the words of the first are 
all short and in themselves relatively simple, many 
people can not really read the poem in a whole life- 
time. The hard core of sense at the center of the 
poem or story must be the same to all readers ; but 
beyond that, varied experience, time, and imagina- 
tion will afford a result that is peculiar for every one. 

Images 

Children in the grades especially should be trained 
in using their vivid imaginations, not only that their 
present but that their future reading also may be 
more pleasurable. A demand for "pictures," or 
"images," makes the child more curious, too, in his 
observation of the world about him ; for in imagining 
he feels the need of accuracy concerning details that 
he may have overlooked or thought utterly needless 
before. Ask a child to draw a man's head, and the 
chances are that he must look to see if the ears 
extend above the eyebrows! Ask him to image a 



196 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

picture suggested by the poem and he not only gets 
a better understanding of the poem, but he also is 
impressed by the notion that he must look more 
closely at everything that lies about him. It is 
important in every way that this habit be encour- 
aged. For instance, in reading Tennyson's "Owl," 
we should at the line 

"And rarely smells the new-mown hay" 

recall as clearly as possible the odor; and coming to 
the stanza: 

"I would mock thy chant anew; 

But I can not mimic it; 
Not a whit of thy tuwhoo, 
Thee to woo to thy tuwhit, 
Thee to woo to thy tuwhit, 

With a lengthened loud halloo — 
Tuwhoo, tuwhit, tuwhit, tuwhoo-o-o" 

we should hear the owl, if we read the poem silently, 
and suggest his hooting if we read it aloud. Unless 
we have vivid sense images of the odor that rises 
from roast pig, of the pain in burnt fingers and the 
consequent impulsive action, and of the deliciousness 
of the roast flesh to the tongue, we shall not be able 
to read Charles Lamb's delightful "Dissertation 
upon Roast Pig" with full appreciation. 

These imaginative images, we must remember, 
are not visual pictures only. They may result also, 
though probably in a less degree in most readers, 



READING AND LITERATURE 197 

from each of the other senses as well. Illustrations 
have just been given of images of smell, hearing, 
taste, and touch. But by far the most mental images 
are visual: they bring up pictures to the mind's eye, 
varying in vividness according to several elements, 
chiefly the habit of visualizing that the reader has. 
This habit is far more easily fixed in childhood than 
at any other time ; and a teacher of reading or liter- 
ature who fails to give the imaging faculties exercise 
and encouragement is sadly derelict in duty. The 
habit will give pleasure to age, not merely in reading, 
but also in recalling scenes of earlier life.* In 
imaging exercises the teacher must be alert, for so 
far as their experiences have gone, children have 
extremely vivid images: and not infrequently they 
will vivify distinctly what appeals only to the intellect 
of an adult. 

Images May Differ 

It should be noted by the teacher that although the 
mental image of each person should be as definite as 
possible and stable, there are many cases in which 
it does not need to correspond, except in a very 
general way, with that of any other reader. In 

*Halleck's "The Education of the Central Nervous System" 
(The Macmillan Co.) will be found helpful here. Contrary to what 
might be expected from the title, the book is very readable, especially 
if at first one omits the first four chapters, which are largely physi- 
ological, and begins with the chapter on "Environment and Train- 
ing." In Chapter VIII are listed a number of experiments that 
not only would b» instructive but also might furnish great amuse- 
ment at some party. Every teacher and parent should read the 
whole book. 



198 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Longfellow's "Children's Hour," for instance, we 
have a good picture in the stanza : 

"From my study I see in the lamplight, 

Descending the broad hall stair, 
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra, 

And Edith with golden hair." 

Each person who reads this stanza appreciatively 
as literature sees the study of the poet, the staircase 
in the hall, and the three children, each clearly 
different from the other two. But the point is that 
one reader's picture would not necessarily satisfy 
another reader: one has his notion of how "grave 
Alice" looked; another pictures her in quite a 
different way. But each must have a picture that is 
clear to his own mind's eye. 

In other passages, where the suggestions are even 
less definitely given than here, the pictures may 
differ so widely among several readers as to make 
us sometimes wonder if they were inspired by the 
same words. Of course some readers will have 
better imaginations, wider experience, better taste, 
and a true understanding of the poem. Their 
pictures will help all of us to understand the poem 
better, perhaps ; yet it remains that oftentimes one's 
own picture, however crude, is the best one for him, 
with his understanding of the poem, to hold. It may 
be changed and improved, as indeed it is apt to be 
by a comparison with the others that are presented. 
But it is very rare when any other can or should be 
substituted for it. 



READING AND LITERATURE 199 

Limits in Variation 

The following lines from Tennyson, for instance, 
call up a more or less vivid picture in the imagination 
of every reader : 

"The splendor falls on castle walls 
And snowy summits old in story; 

The long light shakes across the lakes, 
And the wild cataract leaps in glory." 

To read this passage appreciatively all readers must 
see the details mentioned, but they do not necessarily 
agree on the location or the image of the castle, the 
snowy summits, or the cataract. Good taste will to 
some extent govern the selection and arrangement 
of the details, as will the previous experience of each 
reader. All must agree, however, on the direction 
from which "the long light shakes," for the source 
of it is without doubt the setting sun. It is thus 
apparent that the same poem may sometimes stimu- 
late quite different images in different readers, but 
that wherever there are restricting details they will 
serve to make the various images more nearly alike. 

Translation 

The author's intention is to awaken in each reader 
the emotion that he himself has deeply felt, and to 
that end all of his art is directed. It is evident that 
his results will, on account of the readers' varied 
experiences, taste, and care in reading, vary some- 
what; but the variation must be within such limits 
as will effect the desired emotion, or the poem read 



200 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

is not the poem that was written. Before readers 
can fully appreciate the emotion at the heart of a 
poem, they must understand the denotative meaning 
of the words used and must intelligently understand 
the references. It is hardly necessary to speak 
further of the first point, for more time is spent in 
the literature class in a sort of translating of the 
author's words than in doing anything else. We 
have all taken part in the recitation that consisted 
almost wholly of "What does this word mean?" 
' ' Tell me that in your own words. ' ' This is perhaps 
to some extent necessary, but it is not teaching 
literature: it is merely making a basis for such 
teaching. 

References and Allusions 

The matter of "references" requires intelligent 
discrimination. Many texts, especially some of those 
edited for high school use, demand that pupils shall 
spend most of their time in hunting up the full 
meanings of more or less obscure "references and 
allusions." This sometimes may be necessary, but 
at others it just as surely makes against appreciation 
of what the masterpiece really is intended to convey. 
In "The Bells," for instance, Poe says that the stars 

"seem to twinkle 
With a crystalline delight; 
Keeping time, time, time 
In a sort of Kimic rhyme, 
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells 
From the bells." 



EEADING AND LITERATURE 201 

The word "Runic" may have had in Poe's mind 
some definite meaning, but it would be worse than 
futile to send pupils off to the cyclopedia to look up 
facts regarding runes. On the other hand, no one 
can read with any fulness of appreciation the end of 
Milton's * 'L 'Allegro"— 

"That Orpheus' self may * * * hear 
Such strains as would have won the ear 
Of Pluto, to have quite set free 
His half-regained Eurvdice" — 

without knowing the beautiful myth of Orpheus. If 
a knowledge of reference or allusion adds to the joy 
of appreciation, it should by all means be looked up ; 
if appreciation is had without this trouble, the time 
could probably be better spent on more important 
things. The Scylla of unnecessary and deadening 
work must be avoided as truly as the Charybdis of 
careless word-calling. 

Contrast 

Another device, besides references, used by 
authors to secure their ends is that of contrast. This 
is a principle effective in all arts, any impression 
appearing stronger when set off against its contrary. 
"Why rushed the discords in," asks Browning, "but 
that harmony should be prized?" — and, we might 
add, seem more harmonious? In literature this 
principle is used in a multitude of ways : a villain 
is introduced and the hero seems more noble ; a storm 



202 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

makes the subsequent starlight more beautiful; tur- 
moil and conflict show how desirable calm is ; a short 
sentence is doubly effective amid long ones; a pure 
sentiment seems nobler when opposed to wickedness ; 
beauty is all the fairer for the beast at her side ; and 
no silence is so deep as that following hard upon 
sound. Few pieces of literature contain a larger 
number of effective contrasts of various kinds than 
Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner." To see both things 
contrasted emphasizes each; to show through the 
voice the emphasis of each upon the other assures 
an effect on the hearer. 

The Reader's Contribution 

Pictures are needed in many ways in reading 
literature, varying with the passage in hand. We 
like to know how our heroes in literature look, what 
they wear, how their faces light up when they are 
spoken to, where the scene of the story is laid, what 
time of day or year it is, and so on infinitely. The 
reader who produces his own moving pictures as he 
reads has a vividness of impression, a subtlety of 
appreciation, and a keenness of enjoyment in certain 
fields of literature that no other kind of reader can 
know. Often the failure of a reader to contribute 
through his imagination anything from his own 
experience to the poem before him results in a lack 
of appreciation or even of understanding that causes 
him to make the absurd and self -betraying statement 
that "there is nothing in poetry." Professor Wood- 
bury declares, somewhat fancifully perhaps, that the 



BEADING AND LITERATURE 203 

act of reading is "the blending of two souls." 
Certain it is that there can be no true reading of 
literature without a hearty contribution of the 
reader's self. 

In the oral reading of literary material, therefore, 
we see that there may be a good calling of the words, 
which, although it gives the mere sense, the denota- 
tive meaning, does not begin to exhaust or even to 
satisfy the reading of literature. Beyond this, the 
reader must make his imaginative contribution, must 
submit his flint to the steel of the author, before he 
finds the fire of inspiration. After he has repro- 
duced in himself the images and the emotion which 
the author is attempting to convey through his poem 
or his story, then he can begin the attempt to give 
through his voice the same or similar images and 
emotions to his hearers. 

Why Interpretations Differ 

In true reading of literature, then, we must expect 
and be ready to account for quite different oral 
results sometimes from the same written words. In 
Shakespeare's "Macbeth," for instance, actors and 
readers differ so materially in their conception of 
Lady Macbeth 's character that there are three very 
distinct readings of one sentence of two words (Act 
I., Scene VII., Line 59). Mrs. Jameson says that the 
actress "Mrs. Siddons adopted successively three 
different intonations in giving the words we fail. 
At first as a quick contemptuous interrogation. 
Afterwards with the note of admiration, and an 



-**. 



204 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

accent of indignant astonishment, laying the em- 
phasis on we. Lastly, she fixed on what I am con- 
vinced is the true reading — we fail, with the simple 
period, modulating her voice to a deep, low, resolute 
tone, which settled the issue at once — as though she 
had said, 'If we fail, why then we fail, and all is 
over.' " 

Consider the Child's View 

In like manner children will gain different ideas 
or shades of meaning, sometimes strangely per- 
verted, from the printed page; and it behooves the 
teacher to exercise great care in getting at the child's 
point of view always before offering criticism. It 
may be that the reader has expressed a perfectly 
valid interpretation of the passage, even though 
novel to the critic. And even if the interpretation 
be weak or wrong, the child must be brought to a 
different point of view before he can honestly and 
profitably adopt another manner of reading the 
passage. Here mere imitation is decidedly wrong. 

It is very difficult for most people — teachers cer- 
tainly no less than others — to maintain the open- 
mindedness that is demanded by the last paragraph. 
When there are two ways of solving an arithmetical 
problem, we have to look and consider; they are 
appeals to the intellect: but appeals to the taste we 
often feel to be different, though really, of course, 
they are not so. Many an excellent teacher, after 
reading and teaching a poem a number of times, has 
had pupils suggest by their reading an interpretation 



BEADING AND LITERATURE 205 

that had never occurred to him before. When pupils 
and teacher both understand each other's interpre- 
tation, then it is possible and profitable to compare 
and discuss which is better, which comes nearer to 
the inner spirit of the poem. But even then we may 
not always demand exactly the same intonation and 
phrasing of the voice. There are often several ways 
of expressing the same thing. How, for instance, 
should one say "Good morning" when he is really 
cordial? 

Why a Teacher Is Needed 

The question naturally arises, if interpretation 
and expression are so variable, why is a teacher of 
literature needed at all? He is needed, among other 
reasons, first, because readers are not careful of even 
basic denotative reading. The children who merely 
go over words without a realization of their bare 
meaning are too common even when directed by a 
teacher; without guidance their number would be 
infinitely greater. Not only must there be a teacher 
to see that children get some basic meaning ; he must 
see also that they get the right basic meaning. It is 
hardly to be expected that every child will read 
correctly George Eliot's sentence which says that 
Nancy Lammeter's "acquaintance with profane 
literature hardly went beyond the rhymes she had 
worked in her large sampler." A teacher is needed, 
in the second place, because children, and adults as 
well, are likely to confuse reading for sense and 
reading for feeling, — that is, denotative and conno- 



20G BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

tative reading. The teacher by any devices at his 
command must reproduce or awaken in his pupils 
the emotion that the author is attempting to convey. 

A teacher of literature is needed, in the third 
place, because appreciation is contagious. If the 
teacher himself is full of enjoyment of what he tries 
to teach, the children are likely to enjoy it too. On 
the other hand, every teacher has experienced the 
deadening failure in attempting to present some 
"masterpiece" that did not at the time appeal to 
him. Hence it follows that it is almost essential to 
have appreciation before attempting to give it. But 
the process of appreciation is often slow: it takes 
time for suggestion to creep to its outposts. Conse- 
quently, another need for a teacher is that he shall 
by various devices keep his class on a piece of liter- 
ature until the fulness of appreciation comes. It is 
a wise teacher who can do this and stop just short of 
exhaustion — both of subject-matter and of class. 

Children — and to a less extent adults as well — are 
never so likely to enjoy a piece of literature as when 
they see some points of contact between it and them- 
selves. If they see in it some situation in which 
they have been or hope to be; if they detect in it 
some ideal that satisfies a recognized need; if they 
imagine a likeness between some character and them- 
selves, the masterpiece at once takes on an absorb- 
ing interest. The teacher, with his wider experience, 
his broader knowledge of life, and his acquaintance 
with his pupils, can make points of contact between 
the literature and his pupils that they might never 



BEADING AND LITEKATUKE 207 

find, or only after a wasteful lapse of time. Here, 
then, is another need of a teacher of literature. 

The final need that we shall mention is that from 
all the emotional elements in a piece of literature the 
teacher shall select the one to emphasize, the one 
that the author intended principally to convey. Be- 
fore beginning the study of a selection with the class 
the teacher should have a clear and definite answer 
to this question, What is the one reason for asking 
the pupils to study this selection at this time? Not 
infrequently a reader is carried away by some minor 
element that really is intended to support the domi- 
nant impression. If the teacher has a proper under- 
standing of the piece of literature, he can, particu- 
larly through his assignment, direct the children 
toward an appreciation of the effect as a whole. 
Then can follow the study of details, which, in turn, 
should be succeeded by a final view of the whole, — 
the dominant impression emphasized by all its sup- 
porting elements. 

Dangers from a Teacher 

Just as there are at least these six needs of a 
teacher in the literature class, so there are also dan- 
gers in having him there. Far too frequently a 
teacher tends to intrude himself between the master- 
piece and the children ; instead of being an interpre- 
ter, he becomes an obstacle. He makes himself, his 
thoughts and experiences and emotions, rather than 
the literature, the subject for study. Closely allied 
to this is the reading of more into the literature 



208 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

than really is there, the extension or warping of the 
author's original suggestion to include the teacher's 
own ideas of what should be meant. This is a dan- 
ger particularly from the enthusiastic teacher, for it 
is he who is most likely in his enjoyment to lose 
appreciation of the fact that it is the literature itself 
after all that is appealing to its readers. 

A teacher of literature is failing in his duty, too, 
if he makes himself indispensable. The danger here, 
likewise, is from the enthusiastic teacher. He con- 
tributes so much to the recitations that they are 
enjoyed thoroughly the year through; and yet, when 
the pupils attempt to read independently they learn 
that they have not the power to find approximate 
enjoyment for themselves. The young teacher par- 
ticularly needs to bear in mind that the literature 
period is not merely for enjoyment : it is for instruc- 
tion as well. And even though the pupils may not 
cover so much ground, even though they may not go 
out day by day in so fine a glow, they really are 
getting what they come into the class for if they are 
learning to read for themselves, to find for them- 
selves such enjoyment as will make a teacher un- 
necessary. 

Finally, there is danger to a class in literature 
from a teacher who is ashamed of his own emotions. 
May we be delivered, one and all, from the teacher 
who gushes over what is to be taught ! But deliver- 
ance may equally be prayed for from the teacher 
who will not confess to tears over "Drumsheugh's 
Love Story," who stifles his righteous sympathy 



BEADING AND LITERATURE 209 

with Burns when he declares that "A man's a man 
for a' that," who cloaks his tenderness over the 
beauty of sky or sea or twilight star, who, in short, 
is ashamed to confess to the emotions that the litera- 
ture is intended to arouse. This false modesty is 
easily explained, but it can not be excused in a 
teacher of literature. If the emotion is sincere and 
soundly based, it will be respected, and, moreover, 
it will make it easier for the pupils to react as they 
should to the stimulus of poem or story. 

It has been assumed in the last paragraph that 
the teacher actually does feel the emotion that any 
particular piece of literature in hand was written to 
convey. If he does not, he has no business to be 
attempting to teach that piece of literature. In- 
stead of being a stimulating medium, he will be an 
almost insuperable obstruction. Every teacher of 
literature knows from experience that when teaching 
what he does not enjoy, the lesson is almost sure to 
drag and be a disspiriting failure. The first essen- 
tial, then, is for a teacher himself to enjoy before he 
attempts to present. Inasmuch as tastes are more 
or less variable, courses of study, then, should sel- 
dom prescribe exactly the same literature for every 
class and every teacher. Opportunity for election 
will increase the chances of pleasurable result. 

Appreciative Criticism 

It has been said before that it is difficult to define 
literature. All critics agree, however, that it must 
give pleasure. If, then, a literature class are not 



210 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

enjoying their work, it is probable either that the 
selection is unsuited to them or that the teacher 
is emphasizing elements not strictly literary. Prac- 
tically all criticism in literature classes of the first 
ten years of school should point children to an appre- 
ciation of the best, the enjoyable elements. It 
should seldom dwell upon, or even point out, the 
minor defects of workmanship. If the masterpiece 
has been selected for study, the assumption is that 
its merits far outweigh its demerits. It is easier, 
however, to dwell on defects, real or imagined, than 
it is to bring pupils to enjoy the happy fruits of 
genius ; hence many teachers, especially when young 
and undirected, develop in their classes a spirit of 
carping criticism, which certainly does not make for 
enjoyment, either in young or in old. It may be 
interesting to know that this story is mathematically 
incorrect or that this poem is based upon an inaccu- 
rate historical report : but neither bit of information 
adds to enjoyment of the masterpiece. These mat- 
ters may safely be left to more mature students or, 
when it is necessary for other reasons to call atten- 
tion to them, the correction should be made not in 
the name of appreciation of literature but for the 
sake of general truth or whatever else makes the 
demand. 

Legitimate Questions 

What questions may be asked in the literature 
class? Those questions, it should be obvious, that 
lead to an appreciation on the part of the child of 



READING AND LITERATURE 211 

the emotion that the author is trying to convey. The 
questions may be preliminary, concerning matters of 
translation or reference ; they may lead toward mak- 
ing a personal connection between the pupils and 
the experience presented ; they may direct the class 
toward a more complete appreciation of all that the 
author suggests : in short, they may do anything that 
results in enjoyment of the author's effort. It is 
difficult to see that any questions leading otherwhere 
are legitimate. The appreciation of the same piece 
of literature will vary according to many elements — 
mood, maturity, environment, and the like; hence 
no set of definite questions will be suitable for all 
teachers to follow, nor even for the same teacher to 
follow at different times with different classes. The 
only directions, therefore, that are really helpful 
are those that deal with general principles. Definite 
lesson outlines, like those which will be given in 
later chapters, may be suggestive and interesting as 
an application of the principles herein set forth; 
but before they can be used by other teachers they 
will Deed to be assimilated and then adapted to the 
needs of class and occasion. 

Reading and Literature 

The study of literature should, in conclusion, pre- 
cede oral reading of literary material sufficiently for 
the reader to get at the heart of sense and the halo 
of feeling that surrounds it. Whatever the poem or 
the prose means to the reader, he must try to make 
his hearer understand by the skillful use of his voice. 



212 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

He must not only say the words so that the sense is 
conveyed; he must by inflection and shading of the 
voice, by the very key in which he reads, by signifi- 
cant pauses and by hurrying, emphasis, or vigor, by 
slight gesture and facial expression, — in short, by 
every device at his command he must suggest to the 
hearer what the piece of literature means to him, 
particularly how it makes him feel. If through the 
voice one can produce or awaken in an audience the 
emotion that possessed the author and that he is 
endeavoring to convey through his writing, then that 
is successful oral reading of literature. But to do 
this one must first of all himself understand and 
appreciate what he wishes to read. 



CHAPTER XIX 

LlTEKATUEE IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES 

The principles set forth in the preceding chap- 
ter are valueless, of course, unless they are prac- 
tically applied in teaching. When it conies to the 
preparation of a definite lesson, the principles 
should be clearly in mind, and, more than that, 
should demand systematic application. What this is 
must, from the nature of poetry, vary considerably 
with the different types chosen for presentation; but 
many, perhaps most, lessons will follow some such 
plan as : 1. Preparation, 2. Presentation, 3. Relat- 
ing to the children's selves, 4. Developing by various 
devices the connotation of the poem, 5. Deepening 
the impression; directing and refining the emotion, 
6. Recalling by memory or otherwise for renewed 
pleasure. 

Preparation 

The preparation should be carefully thought out 
by the teacher. Knowing her children, she will know 
what words in the poem they do not understand at 
all, or that they understand only incompletely, what 
allusions to other stories they know or need to know, 
what atmosphere the poem will demand for its best 
reception, and finally, whether the children have had 

213 



214 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

and remember dearly the experiences set forth by 
the author. Knowing all these things, she must build 
her foundation for teaching the poem, preferably at 
some period preceding the actual presentation. By 
way of illustration, we may make an application to 
Eobert Louis Stevenson's 

Marching Song* 

Bring the comb and play upon it! 

Marching here we come ! 
Willie cocks his highland bonnet, 

Johnnie beats the drum. 

Mary Jane commands the party, 

Peter leads the rear; 
Feet in time, alert and hearty, 

Each a Grenadier ! 

All in the most martial manner 

Marching double-quick ; 
"While the napkin, like a banner, 

Waves upon the stick ! 

Here's enough of fame and pillage, 

Great commander Jane ! 
JSTow that we've been round the village, 

Let's go home again. 

Most children in the elementary grades will have 
an imperfect knowledge, if any, of highland bonnet, 
leads the rear, alert, Grenadier, martial, double- 

* Used by permission of the publishers, Charles Scribner 's Sons. 



LITERATURE IN ELEMENTARY GRADES 215 

quick, bonnet, pillage, commander. How the mean- 
ing of these words should be taught the children de- 
pends on so many varying elements that it would be 
futile to give any definite directions which should 
be followed by all. An actual "highland bonnet" 
might be shown the children in connection with some 
story of the Scotch, a picture of one might be found 
in dictionary or history; but inasmuch as historical 
accuracy is not here required and by way of prepa- 
ration for a later part of the lesson, the children 
might be set to making during the construction 
period "highland bonnets" or even cocked hats of 
paper. With this as with the other words and 
phrases, any device that will result in an interested 
acquiring of the new knowledge is legitimate. The 
phrase "Peter leads the rear," which no child is 
likely to appreciate at first, might well be left for the 
class to puzzle out for themselves during the read- 
ing: a pleasant sense of power follows such a 
mastery. 

The more the children know of Scotch valor, of 
"Grenadiers," of brave deeds, and the like, the more 
quickly, of course, they will understand the poem and 
the more fully they will enjoy it when it is presented. 
Words and allusions may be explained and an appro- 
priate atmosphere created at the same time by sto- 
ries, songs, pictures, or marching games. And these 
last will also create or revivify the experience that 
the poem presents. All the preparation, it may be 
said, is done without, as a rule, the children's know- 
ing what it is for. If the teacher can not make it 



216 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

interesting and worth while of and for itself, she 
may, of course, frankly motivate it as preparation 
for a later reading lesson. 

The younger the children the more help they 
will need before understanding the new and hard 
words. Not only must the teacher by various devices 
explain these words ; she must also create occasions 
for the children to use them. This she may do 
chiefly through the use of pictures, games, and 
stories. 

The wisest preparation for the teaching of a poem 
may begin days or even weeks ahead ; it may be made 
during the period devoted to some other study or 
even casually during conversation. The point is 
that the more fully a reader understands words, the 
more quickly and fully will he acquire the thought 
and feeling expressed by them. 

Following are some questions asked by one teacher 
by way of immediate preparation; the hard words 
had been taken care of in a previous lesson. These 
questions are given not as ideal; the same teacher 
would probably ask different ones with a different 
class at another time : but they may prove suggestive. 

"Do you ever play marching? Do you like to? 
Show me how you march when you play soldier. 
(This to develop "Feet in time, alert and hearty.") 

"What did the soldiers wear? Suppose we wear 
those paper hats we made yesterday. What else did 
they have? What could we use for a banner? What 
for our music? 

"All right. Now, let's march. Where are you 



LITERATUEE IN ELEMENTARY GRADES 217 

going? What for? Ready: March! Now, Double- 
quick ! 

"What do soldiers fight for! (Develop here, 
"fame and pillage.") After soldiers get them, what 
do they do? Play that you have fame and pillage; 
now what shall we do? Well, let's go home again." 

Presentation 

The presentation was not made until the next day. 
Then the teacher herself read "in a most martial 
manner" Stevenson's poem, and as each phrase that 
had been used by the teacher the day before was read 
the children greeted it with smiles of recognition. 
With young children a poem should usually be pre- 
sented by the teacher. In the first place she can by 
reading or recitation, preferably the latter, set a 
standard for the reading by the class. She can give 
correct pronunciations, the proper tempo or move- 
ment, and a better conception of the sense. 

Relating to the Children's Selves 

Much of the relating of the poem to the children's 
selves was done in the preparation for the "March- 
ing Song." After the presentation the teacher 
asked: "Is this what you did yesterday? How did 
you like it? As I read the poem, did you imagine 
yourself one of the marchers? Who was the great 
commander? Who brought the comb and played 
upon it? Who beat the drum? Who carried the 
banner? Who led the rear? Who cocked the high- 



218 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

land bonnets 1 How many soldiers must there be in 
this play? If there are more, what may they be?" 
There is little enjoyment of literature by young 
or old unless they feel themselves related in some 
way to it. With small children this relating must 
usually be of the most direct kind: they are the 
actors in the drama, or they have been, or they wish 
to be. The more the Ego is involved, the more 
enjoyment there will be. The most appreciative 
reader of "The Land of Counterpane" imagines 
himself lying propped in bed playing with his leaden 
soldiers and ships and houses. It is interesting to 
turn through a collection of popular children's verse 
and note the frequent recurrence of the first person 
pronoun. Practically every poem in Stevenson's 
"Child's Garden of Verses" frankly centers about 
the Ego of the reader. A half-dozen of the better 
known ones begin : — 

"In winter I get up at night." 
"When I was down beside the sea." 
"All night long and all the night, 

When my mamma pnts out the light." 
"Up into the cherry tree 

Who should climb but little me f 
"When I am grown to man's estate." 
"I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me." 

Connotation 

The connotation, too, has been partly taken care 
of by the preparation ; in the recitation it must be de- 
veloped as much further as the teacher thinks wise. 



LITEKATUEE IN ELEMENTARY GRADES 219 

The importance of connotation in literature has been 
emphasized sufficiently, perhaps, in the preceding- 
chapter. Unless the words of the " Marching Song" 
connote a great deal more than they actually say, 
they are merely an historical account of what some 
children once did. For the further connotation the 
teacher may use stories, references to previously 
acquired knowledge or experience of the children, 
pictures, action, imitative or original, and the spir- 
ited tone of the poem. Any device that extends the 
meaning of the words toward a fuller appreciation of 
the poem is legitimate. 

The surest preparation on the part of the teacher 
for awakening the fulness of meaning, the connota- 
tion, of a poem, is for herself to become thoroughly 
appreciative of it. Any primary teacher should 
retain enough of childhood to enter joyously into the 
swinging spirit of the ''Marching Song"; other 
poems, however, may make greater demands. Ste- 
venson's "Rain," "Foreign Lands," and "Windy 
Nights," for instance, are so delicately expressive of 
the child spirit that many an "Olympian" never 
passes into the kingdom of appreciation. To do this 
she must surrender herself wholly to the imaginative 
spirit of the poems; she must allow herself to be 
taken back — rather than go back — to the golden age 
of childhood. She must feel child-like, not childish. 
Unless she can enter thus into the heart of the poem, 
she would better lay it aside and prepare something 
else to present to the class. She is intended to be a 
help, not an obstacle, to them. 



220 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Directing and Refining the Emotion 

In the "Marching Song" there is little need for 
directing the natural feelings of the child, for they 
are likely to be right, a spontaneous and full enjoy- 
ment of concerted physical activity in another and, 
to the children, enviable field of life. Some refining 
of the emotions may be needed in the way of remov- 
ing, so far as possible, all idea of the brutal side of 
the soldier : much may be said of the fame acquired 
through glorious deeds, little should be said of the 
pillage with its attendant cruelties. 

With other poems this phase of the work may take 
on greater importance. The teacher's greater knowl- 
edge and better taste should determine what emotion 
the author was endeavoring to make dominant in 
the poem. When her decision and the natural feeling 
of the class are identical, she has no duty to per- 
form here ; but when, as is not infrequently the case, 
the children are filled by an emotion not meant to be 
aroused by the poems or by one that the author 
intended to be subordinate, then the teacher is chal- 
lenged by a real problem. Children may enjoy a 
poem and still need help here, for unless they have 
the enjoyment that the author had, they are not, in 
the truest sense, reading what he wrote. A teacher 
should be exceedingly careful to respect the feelings, 
however perverted, that are aroused in a class by a 
piece of literature: her own feeling may be the 
ideal one, but it can not be immediately substituted. 
That would lead to insincerity and a consequent lack 



LITERATURE IN ELEMENTARY GRADES 221 

of real appreciation. Hence the problem in this 
phase of teaching is how to lead the children to 
change for themselves the emotion that they may 
have for the one that the author is attempting to 
convey. 

More can and shonld be done to deepen the impres- 
sion. Readers young and old forget even very pleas- 
urable experiences unless the impression is repeated 
over and over or deepened in other ways. The im- 
pression Ijas been made first through the teacher's 
reading: it can be repeated by the children's telling 
back all that they remember of the story; by their 
dramatizing phrases, like 

"Willie cocks his highland bonnet," 
"Feet in time, alert and hearty," 
"All in the most martial manner 
Marching double-quick :" 

by their making illustrations in wash drawings or 
with pencil, colored crayons, or chalk, of passages 
like the third verse or the whole of the third stanza ; 
by their modeling in clay or on the sand-table illus- 
trations of phrases ; and finally by a dramatization, 
where practicable, of the whole story. 

After the literary appreciation of the poem is had, 
the impression can be further deepened by effective 
oral reading. This reading must, of course, convey 
not only the thought but the feeling as well. The 
teacher stimulates this by such criticisms as: "You 
don't make me want to march too," "Read that so 



222 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

as to show me how you marched," "Are you think- 
ing of the good time you had? Show it by the way 
you read." 

After the oral reading may come the memorizing 
of the poem. This is not, as is so often thought, 
the end to be sought in teaching literature: it is 
merely a means of deepening the impression or of 
preparation for a later recall and review. If such 
a poem as the "Marching Song" has been well 
taught, if the teacher has on all possible .occasions 
used the phrases of the poem itself, the children 
probably know it by the time the oral reading is 
finished. Care should be had that whenever the chil- 
dren recite the poem they do it with appreciative 
expression. That they may do this, the teacher 
should recall briefly the setting of the poem or what 
the children did in dramatizing it, before asking for 
a recitation. 

Recall for Pleasure 

Literature is largely, but not wholly, ineffective 
if it is read and forgotten. It is very likely to be for- 
gotten unless it is recalled many times by the teacher, 
so many times that it will rise at the appropriate 
moment to interpret some experience in life. A 
mechanical recall is pleasurable for a while, in that 
it brings back the original pleasure; but that will 
rapidly diminish unless the teacher select appropri- 
ate moments for asking the children for the poem. 
Appropriate moments are usually those when the 
poem will either express some feelings that have 



LITERATURE IN ELEMENTARY GRADES gg3 

been stimulated in the children by other means, or 
when the poem will prepare for some experience 
that is imminent. The " Marching Song" might be 
recalled, for instance, after the children have had a 
marching game, after a story of war and adventure., 
and after they have seen a parade of soldiers. Ifc 
may be used, likewise, in preparation for these 
things. Every now and then a child should be called 
on to choose and recite before the class, or even with 
the class, some poem that he particularly liked. And, 
finally, such a poem as the "Marching Song" may 
be used occasionally as a concert recitation to wake 
up a sleepy class on a dull afternoon. 

Many other opportunities for the recall of a poem 
will doubtless occur to the fertile teacher. There 
is enough of the "peacock instinct" in most children 
to make them enjoy self-exhibition; so the class may 
be called on individually or collectively to recite be- 
fore visitors or at parents' meetings the poems 
learned in regular recitations. Such recitation may 
sometimes be followed by a simple dramatization of 
the story. 

That this recall may be effective, the teacher must 
have in mind what the children have studied pre- 
viously, she must, preferably, select appropriate 
times for the reviews, and she must herself enter into 
the spirit of the poem each time it is reviewed. 

Some poems studied in the schools have been set 
to music. When this is the case, the song may be 
used to deepen the impression of the poem, and also 
as a means of recall. But if this is to be effective, 



224 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

the teacher must keep the thought aud feeling of the 
poem prominently before the children, otherwise 
both literature and music suffer.* A charming set- 
ting of Stevenson's "Marching Song" has been 
made by DeKoven.f 

Variation of the Plan 

Such a lesson plan as has been outlined in this 
chapter is not at all rigid, but it is soundly based and 
consequently should be helpful in teaching many, 
probably most, poems. In some cases it may be wise 
to disregard it entirely, certainly when the poem 
is to be taught less thoroughly, as is sometimes de- 
sirable. Whenever it is used, the teacher must decide 
which of the six steps in the teaching need emphasis 
and which may be slighted. Sometimes, as suggested 
in the outline for the ' ' Marching Song, ' ' one or more 
steps may be largely included in another. Anything 
in the teaching of literature is justifiable that suc- 
ceeds in reproducing or awakening in the pupils the 
emotion that possessed the poet and that he is 
endeavoring to convey through his poem. 

* See Earnsworth : Education Through Music. American Book 
Co., passim. 

f This song is in Eleanor Smith 's Modern Music Series, First 
Book. Silver, Burdett & Co. Miss Smith 's musical settings for 
eight of Stevenson 's poems are in Song Pictures. Clayton F. 
Summy Co. Price 50 cents. 



CHAPTER XX 

Literature in the Intermediate Grades 

In the intermediate grades the consciousness of 
self, which has been surely developing, becomes more 
or less dominant. Everything tends to be thought 
in terms of self ; and those elements of life that widen 
the horizon, that show possibilities of new kinds of 
activity, particularly physical, are extremely attract- 
ive. Consequently stories of heroism and adventure 
appeal strongly, to girls as well as to boys. 

Myths and Legends. 

This appetite must be satisfied. Unless the school 
furnishes the literary food that is craved, the chil- 
dren will find it in low and sometimes vicious forms. 
Inasmuch as the child mind is at this age not com- 
plex, it is gratified with the stories of primitive life, 
myths, legends, and ballads. Particularly suited 
for use in the intermediate grades are some of the 
classic myths and the stories of King Arthur and 
of Robin Hood. To those who object that these are 
not true, it must be answered that they are really 
more true than history ; for, in more or less primitive 
minds, they have been continually modified by 
human interest, until they come to us essentially 

225 



226 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

true, even though treating of beings who never were. 
It is eternally true that youth, personified in our 
story by Theseus, when challenged by a difficult task 
strives and strives to accomplish it, that he has a 
strong heart to right the wrongs of the world, that 
he is helped by others because of his high purpose, 
and the like. And through such stories developing 
childhood sees ideals that pull it forward continu- 
ously into larger and higher spheres of life. 

As Preparation for Later Reading 

More than all this, the stories of gods and heroes 
must be known early so that they will become a part 
of the accumulated ideas by means of which the 
reader interprets other literature. The literature 
that the children will read during all the remainder 
of their lives is shot through with references to 
mythology. Whether these references adorn or dim 
the web depends almost wholly on this early train- 
ing. Later in life when confronted by an allusion to 
Ariadne or Europa, a reader may carefully get from 
a book the bare facts or even the entire story, but 
he will surely miss the joy that comes from chancing 
on an allusion that recalls the time when he reveled 
on the hills of Helicon or with tensed muscle followed 
Eobin Hood on his adventures. This spontaneous 
joy contributes as few other things can to the pleas- 
ure that the later literature gives. So the study of 
gods and heroes in the intermediate grades not only 
gives prompt return ; it also stores up riches for the 
davs to come. 



LITEEATUEE IN INTEEMEDIATE GEADES 227 

Sense Images 

The senses, which have been so keen in the ele- 
mentary grades, will, unless exercised by the teacher, 
respond in the later years with less exact images 
when stimulated by literary symbol. This is prob- 
ably due to the fact that precepts have become more 
complex, and hence the word ' ' horse, ' ' for example, 
does not any more so promptly or so completely 
bring before the mind's eye the well-known family 
servant and friend. The word means more; it 
appeals to the physical senses less. But whatever 
the cause of the dimming of sense images, they are 
necessary in appreciating many passages of litera- 
ture, and they can be kept active and made richer if 
they are systematically exercised. A teacher must 
be interested in developing the intellect of his pupils, 
of course ; but he should keep alive for them also the 
prompt and complete use of their senses. This is 
particularly important in the intermediate grades; 
for if sense images are frequently demanded, there 
is likely to be set up a habit that will persist in more 
or less lively fashion all through life. 

Extensive Reading 

The chief emphasis in the intermediate grades is 
to fix good reading habits. That being true, suitable 
books should be furnished in numbers, and in class 
the teacher should know how to pass over minutiae 
that will not add to the appreciation of the major 
elements in poem or story. In the story of Theseus, 



228 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

for instance, there are a number of geography 
names. To know exactly where Troezene was will 
not add in the least to one's enjoyment of the story, 
and so it should be passed over without reference to 
map or history. In the last paragraph but one are 
a number of names of persons and things that are 
involved in the later history of iEthra. But for the 
appreciation of this particular story one does not 
need to know the details of any of the stories to 
which reference is made. These stories may be read 
or studied later with greater interest, perhaps, be- 
cause of these references; but here they should be 
passed without study. Sometimes it is undoubtedly 
necessary for appreciative enjoyment that a reader 
shall refer to a map or follow up a reference. But 
that is not always the case. 

Careless Habits 

Having already learned how to get for themselves 
the thought from the printed page, children often 
in the intermediate grades read voraciously. If the 
subject-matter is fascinating, this is good, in that 
it of itself sets up good eye-movements. For the 
sake of tastes, the literature read should be of 
acceptable standards. And regarding reading itself, 
that habits of carelessness shall not be formed, there 
should be considerable demand for summaries and 
discussion. A child shoujd go as fast as he pleases 
— and that, when the matter is interesting, is as fast 
as he can — provided he is getting the essence of what 
he goes over. Otherwise it is not reading. To be 



LITERATURE IN INTERMEDIATE GRADES 229 

sure that lie" does get substance, someone, as a rule 
parent or teacher must stimulate reproduction in 
oral or written form, analysis, discussion, or com- 
parison with matter previously read. An ideal to be 
desired is that readers shall spend less time on the 
page and more time thinking and talking of what 
they got from it. 

Reading at Home 

Some oral reading should be regularly continued 
during the intermediate years. Preferably this 
should be done under supervision; but as the class 
period is crowded, the teacher has little time to give 
to this phase of the work. Here is where the home 
can help. Perhaps a large majority of parents give 
some time each day to assisting their children in the 
preparation of lessons. Not infrequently they hin- 
der more than help the teacher of arithmetic, geog- 
raphy, or nature study. But every parent can help 
the teacher of oral reading by listening interestedly 
each day while the child reads aloud to him. The 
only demand that he needs to make is that the child 
read in a distinct, pleasant voice so as to give the 
sense of the passage. 

The story taken for illustration in this chapter 
is the first part of Charles Kingsley's version of 
"Theseus," and hence should be considered as a 
mere introductory chapter for the adventures that 
come later. The entire story, with two similar ones, 
is found in Kingsley's "The Heroes ; or Greek Fairy 
Tales," of which there are many editions. The 



230 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

lesson is not presented so formally as .that for the 
elementary grades ; bnt all the steps set forth there 
are taken care of in the questions asked on this story. 
The emphasis in this lesson plan is on thorough and 
appreciative reading. 

THESEUS 

CHARLES KINGSLEY 

Part i 
How Theseus Lifted the Stone 

Once upon a time there was a princess in Trcezene, iEthra, 
the daughter of Pittheus the king. She had one fair son, 
named' Theseus, the bravest lad in all the land ; and iEthra 
never smiled but when she looked at him, for her husband 
had forgotten her, and lived far away. And she used to go 
up to the mountain above Trcezene, to the temple of Poseidon, 
and sit there all day looking out across the bay, over Methana, 
to the purple peaks of iEgina, and the Attic shore beyond. 
And when Theseus was full fifteen years old, she took him up 
with her to the temple, and into the thickets of the grove 
which grew in the temple-yard. And she led him to a tall 
plane-tree, beneath whose shade grew arbutus, and lentisk, and 
purple heather-bushes. And there she sighed, and said, 
"Theseus, my son, go into that thicket, and you will find at 
the plane-tree foot a great flat stone; lift it, and bring me 
what lies underneath." 

Then Theseus pushed his way in through the thick bushes, 
and saw that they had not been moved for many a year. And 
searching among their roots he found a great flat stone, all 
overgrown with ivy, and acanthus, and moss. He tried to 
lift it, but he could not. And he tried till the sweat ran down 



LITERATURE IN INTERMEDIATE GRADES 231 

his brow from heat, and the tears from his eyes for shame: 
but all was of no avail. And at last he came back to his 
mother, and said, "I have found the stone, but I cannot lift 
it; nor do I think that any man could in all Trcezene." 

Then she sighed, and said, "The gods wait long; but they 
are just at last. Let it be for another year. The day may 
come you will be a stronger man than lives in all Trcezene." 

Then she took him by the hand, and went into the temple 
and prayed, and came down again with Theseus to her home. 

And when a full year was past, she led Theseus up again 
to the temple, and bade him lift the stone : but he could not. 

Then she sighed, and said the same words again, and went 
down, and came again the next year; but Theseus could not 
lift the stone then, nor the year after; and he longed to ask 
his mother the meaning of that stone, and what might lie 
underneath it; but her face was so sad that he had not the 
heart to ask. 

So he said to himself, "The day shall surely come when I 
will lift that stone, though no man in Trcezene can." And 
in order to grow strong he spent all his days in wrestling, 
and boxing, and hurling, and taming horses, and hunting the 
boar and the bull, and coursing goats and deer among the 
rocks, till upon all the mountains there was no hunter so 
swift as Theseus; and he killed Phasa, the wild sow of 
Crommyon, which wasted all the land ; till all the people said, 
"Surely the gods are with the lad." 

And when his eighteenth year was past, iEthra led him up 
again to the temple, and said, "Theseus, lift the stone this 
day, or never know who you are." And Theseus went into 
the thicket, and stood over the stone, and tugged at it; and 
it moved. Then his spirit swelled within him, and he said, 
"If I break my heart in my body, it shall up." And he 
tugged at it once more, and lifted it, and rolled it over with 
a shout. 



232 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

And when he looked beneath it, on the ground lay a sword 
of bronze, with a hilt of glittering gold, and by it a pair of 
golden sandals ; and he caught them up, and burst through the 
bushes like a wild boar, and leapt to his mother, holding them 
high above his head. 

But when she saw them she wept long in silence, hiding 
her fair face in her shawl; and Theseus stood by her won- 
dering, and wept also, he knew not why. And when she was 
tired of weeping, she lifted up her head, and laid her finger on 
her lips, and said, "Hide them in your bosom, Theseus my 
son, and come with me where we can look down upon the sea." 

Then they went outside the sacred wall, and looked down 
over the bright blue sea ; and iEthra said, — 

"Do you see this land at our feet?" 

And he said, "Yes, this is Trcezene, where I was born and 
bred." 

And she said, "It is but a little land, barren and rocky, 
and looks toward the bleak northeast. Do you see that land 
beyond ?" 

"Yes ; tbat is Attica, where the Athenian people dwell." 

"That is a fair land and large, Theseus, my son; and it 
looks toward the sunny south; a land of olive-oil and honey, 
the joy of gods and men. For the gods have girdled it with 
mountains, whose veins are of pure silver, and their bones of 
marble white as snow ; and there the hills are sweet with thyme 
and basil, and the meadows with violet and asphodel, and the 
nightingales sing all day in the thickets, by the side of ever- 
flowing streams. There are twelve towns well peopled, the 
homes of an ancient race, the children of Cecrops the serpent- 
king, the son of Mother Earth, who wear gold cicalas among 
the tresses of their golden hair; for like the cicalas they 
sprang from the earth, and like the cicalas they sing all day, 
rejoicing in the genial sun. What would you do, son Theseus, 
if you were king of such a land ?" 



LITERATURE IN INTERMEDIATE GRADES 233 

Then Theseus stood astonished, as he looked across the 
broad bright sea, and saw the fair Attic shore from Sunium 
to Hymettus and Pentelicus, and all the mountain peaks 
which girdle Athens round. But Athens itself he could not 
see, for purple iEgina stood before it, midway across the sea. 

Then his heart grew great within him, and he said, "If I 
were king of such a land, I would rule it wisely and well in 
wisdom and in might, that when I died all men might weep 
over my. tomb, and cry, 'Alas for the shepherd of his people !' " 

And zEthra smiled, and said, "Take, then, the sword and 
the sandals, and go to iEgeus, king of Athens, who lives on 
Pallas's hill, and say to him, 'The stone is lifted, but whose is 
the pledge beneath it?' Then show him the sword and the 
sandals, and take what the gods shall send." 

But Theseus wept — "Shall I leave you, my mother?" 

But she answered, "Weep not for me. That which is fated 
must be ; and grief is easy to those who do naught but grieve. 
Full of sorrow was my youth, and full of sorrow my woman- 
hood. Full of sorrow was my youth for Bellerophon, the 
slayer of the Chima?ra, whom my father drove away by trea- 
son; and full of sorrow my womanhood for thy treacherous 
father and for thee; and full of sorrow my old age will be (for 
I see my fate in dreams) when the sons of the Swan shall 
carry me captive to the hollow vale of Eurotas, till I sail across 
the seas a slave, the handmaid of Helen, the pest of Greece. 
Yet shall I be avenged when the golden-haired heroes sail 
against Troy, and sack the palaces of Ilium ; then my son 
shall set me free from thraldom, and I shall hear the tale of 
Theseus's fame. Yet beyond that I see new sorrows; but I 
can bear them as I have borne the past." 

Then she kissed Theseus, and wept over him ; and went into 
the temple, and Theseus saw her no more. 



234 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Preparation 

As this is a story of Greece, there are a number 
of proper names that will be new and strange to the 
children. The recognition and pronunciation of these 
names, as well as of other hard words, should be 
taken care of before the story is undertaken. The 
words should be placed on the board and, while the 
children look at them, pronounced slowly and dis- 
tinctly. Then word by word, following the teacher, 
the class should pronounce them. Finally come the 
drills. These should be short, not more than one or 
two minutes at the outside, sharp, and exact. When 
the children can recognize and pronounce the words 
easily, they are ready to read the story. 

Presentation 

The first reading may be in full or in part by the 
teacher ; a silent reading lesson, the teacher directing 
it by the devices suggested on pages 264-265 ; or at 
home, in preparation for a recitation the next day. 
If the pupils are first to read the story by them- 
selves, they will be helped by a few directions or 
questions which will show them what the teacher par- 
ticularly wishes them to get. For instance, in this 
story of Theseus, the teacher might say: "I wish 
you to find out from your reading this evening who 
Theseus was, what task his mother set him at, and 
how he prepared himself for it." Or the teacher 
might tell the class that this story is similar to one 
that they had read before and liked, and therefore 



LITERATURE IN INTERMEDIATE GRADES 235 

that he wishes them to answer some questions that 
would connect the two stories in their minds. 

Detailed Directive Questions 

In that the children, however hard they try, will 
not have read the story thoroughly and will forget 
even what they have read unless it is impressed on 
their minds by some means, it is necessary at the 
recitation period to ask them a number of very de- 
tailed questions. These questions should not all 
demand mere reproduction of the story, — in fact, 
few questions of that nature should be asked at all, 
and then only in preparation for others that will 
lead to better literary appreciation. The other 
questions will direct and stimulate the feelings of 
the class, will relate them to the story, preferably by 
making them get through their imaginations into 
Theseus' shoes, will develop the connotative mean- 
ing of certain words or phrases, particularly of 
certain situations and deeds, — the other questions 
and comments will, in short, attempt to reproduce in 
the children the emotion that this story has stimu- 
lated in mankind since the world was young. 

For the first recitation on this story of Theseus, 
the teacher may ask the children to read over to 
themselves the first paragraph. Then, both by way 
of testing the thoroughness of their reading and also 
by way of instruction in appreciation, he may ask 
some such questions as follows: "Whom is this 
paragraph about? What kind of a son had she? 
Don't you think that should have made her happy? 



236 HEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Why, then, was she unhappy? How did she spend 
her days? What do you suppose she thought about? 
When Theseus was fifteen years old, where did his 
mother take him? What kind of a place was it? 
How do you suppose it made him feel? What did 
he think and how did he feel when he heard his 
mother's command? How should you have felt?" 
The second paragraph should then be read before 
the teacher asks : "With what spirit do you suppose 
Theseus pushed through the undergrowth? How 
did he probably feel when at first he saw no stone? 
and then when he found it ? How did he try at first 
to lift it ? and then ? Why did the tears come ? How 
should you have felt when, having failed, you had to 
go back to iEthra? What probably made Theseus 
feel particularly sorry to make such a report to her ? 
What was there to comfort him ? What do you sup- 
pose he expected his mother to say or do? Do you 
think Theseus had any determination in his heart? 
Why do you think so?" 

Larger Directive Questions 

The following suggestive questions are less de- 
tailed than those in the preceding paragraphs. Their 
purpose is to make the pupils think for themselves, 
put themselves into the situations, and feel as 
Theseus did. Frequently pupils should be called on 
to justify their answers by citing something in the 
story. 

' ' Can you imagine why .ZEthra was so anxious to 
have Theseus turn over the stone ? How did she feel 



LITERATURE IN INTERMEDIATE GRADES 237 

when he failed? Account for what she did then. 
What do the repeated attempts show? 

"What did his mother's persistence inspire The- 
seus to do? Do you imagine there were interesting 
stories about his killing of Phsea and his other adven- 
tures? When he was eighteen, how did his mother 
stir him to his best effort? Imagine his feelings 
when he succeeded. What do you think caused his 
mother to weep? 

' ' Imagine the scene in which iEthra shows Attica 
to Theseus? What makes it so solemn? Describe 
Attica as you remember it from what you read. What 
impressed you most? Now read the description 
aloud. What does it add to the description that you 
gave? 

"What feelings do you suppose came to Theseus 
as he looked across the sea at Attica and heard what 
his mother said? How should you feel to be offered 
the rule of such a land? What do you think of the 
answer Theseus gave to his mother's questions? 
What did ^Ethra think of it? Why did she smile? 

1 ' From the instructions that .iEthra gives Theseus 
and from other parts of the story, can you guess who 
jiEgeus is? and why Theseus is to take the sword 
and sandals to him? Whom should you like him 
to be? Does Theseus suspect JEgeus to be any more 
to him than a great king? Why do you suppose 
Theseus does not question his mother about the 
meaning of the message and the need for the errand? 
What does the question he asks make you think of 
him? 



238 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

' ' From all that iEthra says in answer, what facts 
of her life, present and past, can you gather? Do 
the incidents that she suggests sound interesting? 
Shall we stop now to read of them? or is there some- 
thing else you would rather hear? What of her 
prophecy would make Theseus hate still more to 
leave her? What would urge him forward? 

In Summary 

"In summary, what does this part of the story 
make you think of Theseus ? Should you like to see 
him succeed? Are you interested enough in him to 
read the rest of the story? What kind of adven- 
tures are you prepared to expect? Do you think 
Theseus will take an important part in them? In 
what ways is he worthy to be a hero?" 

In conclusion, one query the teacher should make 
to himself about each of these questions or any that 
he may use in teaching a poem : What will this ques- 
tion do toward leading the class to understand and 
enjoy better this and all future reading? 



CHAPTER XXI 

LlTEEATUEE IN THE GeAMMAE GeADES 

The principles outlined and illustrated in the pre- 
vious chapters are all applicable to the work in the 
grammar grades, but there the teacher is likely to 
use a greater variety of approaches to the desired 
end than in any of the earlier grades. By the time 
the children are twelve to fourteen years old they 
have acquired very definite interests of their own 
and are not so easily led to any element whatsoever 
by their teacher. Consequently he wisely attacks a 
new piece of literature at a point where the class 
already see, or can easily be made to see, a contact 
with their own selves. 

Judgment Increasingly Involved 

In the upper grades the judgment of the children 
is called for increasingly : what do they think about 
this or that? What would they have done? How 
do they judge between these alternatives? Why did 
the author say this or make the hero do that ? The 
interest of children at this age in aesthetics is not 
naturally keen, but it is time for them to have their 
attention turned somewhat to form. In some schools 
considerable imitative writing is demanded. Where 

239 



240 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

the teacher himself can do imitative writing, is enthu- 
siastic, and has good taste, very pleasing results are 
often obtained. If the children can do this work 
successfully, through their efforts to write ballads, 
fables, and the like, they learn more of form than 
the teacher is likely to teach them by any other 
means. But appreciative enjoyment adequate to the 
age can be had without very much knowledge of form. 

Discrimination 

Everywhere in literature work the emphasis, as 
has been said before, should be on appreciation of 
the excellence; in the lower grades, in fact, nothing 
whatever should be said about defects. But in the 
upper grades, where the children are reading so pro- 
miscuously for themselves, there should be an effort 
to make them somewhat discriminating ; they should 
not think that because a poem or story is in print it 
is perfect. The teacher should determine what weak 
elements in their reading are making appeals to the 
children ; and then, by contrasting these with similar 
elements that are acceptable, show the difference. 
The yellow-back detective story is interesting but 
not good literature: contrast with that Stevenson's 
"Treasure Island." A ribald set of verses is amus- 
ing but certainly poor trash: read for a contrast 
some of Holmes's poems. When attempting this, 
the teacher must be sure to show that the real litera- 
ture is truly better: his saying so or quoting some 
critic on the subject will not convince the pupils, 
and the development of their sense of appreciation 



LITERATURE IN GRAMMAR GRADES 241 

is, after all, the purpose of any such exercise. If a 
teacher is not himself sure of the difference between 
what is usually called "trash" and real literature, 
or if he can not find an illustration of true merit, 
he would better leave the class to the tedious and 
uncertain development of their sense of discrimina- 
tion through reading and growth. 

A Lesson Outlined 

Browning's "How They Brought the Good News 
from Ghent to Aix" * has been chosen for the illus- 
tration of how a poem may be taught to grammar 
grade children. This poem is sometimes used as 
early as the fifth grade ; but the following lesson plan 
is for somewhat older children. Attention must 
again be called to the fact that this is not the only 
way of presenting the poem : it is one way of bring- 
ing out certain points which, it is believed, lead gram- 
mar grade children to a better appreciation of litera- 
ture. It will be noted that here no formal outline, 
as in the elementary grade work, is followed. The 
teacher is supposed to see to it that the class inde- 
pendently look up words whose meaning or pronun- 
ciation they do not know, — indeed, by this time they 
should have had this habit formed from the work 
in the lower grades. Throughout this lesson plan an 
attempt is made to lead the class to see not only 

* The general plan and many of the questions used in the fol- 
lowing pages are taken by kind permission of the publisher from 
"Penny Classics," No. 197, edited by Thomas H. Briggs. C. M. 
Parker, Taylorville, HI. 



242 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

certain effects, but also how these effects are secured, 
— in other words, to appreciate some of the simpler 
devices used by the artist to secure his effects. Every 
point discussed, every question asked has its place 
in a complete plan leading toward intelligent appre- 
ciation. Before asking his class any questions on 
the following pages, a teacher should see what bear- 
ing it has on the understanding and appreciation of 
the poem as a whole. If he does not see that, he 
would better pass to another topic. 

How They Brought the Good News From Ghent to Aix 

(16-.) 

ROBERT BROWNING 



I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he; 

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; 

"Good speed !" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew ; 

"Speed !" echoed the wall to us galloping through ; 

Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, 

And into the midnight we galloped abreast. 

II 

Not a word to each other ; we kept the great pace 

Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place; 

I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, 

Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right, 

Bebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit, 

Nor galloped less steadily Eoland a whit. 



LITERATURE IN GRAMMAR GRADES 243 

III 

'Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near 

Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear; 

At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see ; 

At Duff eld, 'twas morning as plain as could be ; 

And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half-chime, 

So Joris broke silence with, "Yet there is time !" 

IV 

At Aershot, up leaped of a sudden the sun, 

And against him the cattle stood black every one, 

To stare through the mist at us galloping past, 

And I saw my stout galloper Eoland at last, 

With resolute shoulders, each butting away 

The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray : 

V 

And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back 
For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track ; 
And one eye's black intelligence, — ever that glance 
O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance ! 
And the thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon 
His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on. 

VI 

By Hasselt, Dirck groaned ; and cried Joris, "Stay spur ! 
Your Boos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her, 
We'll remember at Aix" — for one heard the quick wheeze 
Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering knees, 
And sunk tail, and horrible henve of the flank, 
As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank. 



244 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

VII 

So, we were left galloping, Joris and I, 

Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky ; 

The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh, 

'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff; 

Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white, 

And "Gallop," gasped Joris, "for Aix is in sight!" 

VIII 

"How they'll greet us !" — and all in a moment his roan 
Eolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone; 
And there was my Eoland to bear the whole weight 
Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate, 
With his nostrils, like pits full of blood to the brim, 
And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' rim. 

IX 

Then I cast loose my buffcoat, each holster let fall, 

Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all, 

Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear, 

Called my Eoland his pet-name, my horse without peer ; 

Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad or good, 

Till at length into Aix Eoland galloped and stood. 

X 

And all I remember is — friends flocking round 

As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground ; 

And no voice but was praising this Eoland of mine, 

As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine, 

"Which (the burgesses voted by common consent) 

Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent. 



LITERATURE IN GRAMMAR GRADES 245 

Rhythm 

If the children have little or no knowledge of 
rhythm and meter, they may be introduced to the 
subject before the presentation of the poem by such 
questions as : — 

"Did you ever hear a horse galloping down the 
road? Perhaps you were in bed and everything was 
quiet. Think how it sounded. Was it a steady, 
swinging gallop into which the horse had settled 
when he knew that he had a jong journey before him? 
Can you tell me how that would sound ? ' ' 

The children are likely by hands and feet and 
mouth to give a pretty good imitation of the rhythm 
of the hoof beats. When they are filled with this 
rhythm, several pupils having given their illustra- 
tion, the teacher may ask : ' ' Does it sound like this ? ' * 
and then read with strong emphasis : — 

"I sprang to the s^'r-rup, and Jor-is, and he; 
I gal-loped, Dirck ^aWoped, we ^aWoped all three; 
'Good speed! 3 cried the watch, as the ^a^-bolts un-drew; 
'Speed!' ech-oed the wall to us ^-loping through; 
Be-hind shut the post-em, the lights sank to rest, 
And in-to the mid-night we gal-loped a-breast." 

"Kead this stanza just as I did. Think of what 
you are reading, but try especially to make us hear 
the galloping of the horses. ' ' After enough children 
have read, strongly emphasizing the rhythm, the 
teacher may give by way of assignment: 

"In preparation for tomorrow's lesson, try to read 



246 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

the whole poem through in this way. If you find any 
passages that you can not read in the rhythm of the 
gallop, see if you can find a reason for the change. 
Then read those passages as you think they ought 
to be read." 

When the children return to class the next day all 
will have found the different movement in stanzas 
VI. and VIII. , and some will have detected less ob- 
vious variations, as in the second verse of stanza II. 
Attention should not be forced to subtle variations ; 
if the class see the reason for the major ones, they 
are prepared for subsequent appreciation of varia- 
tions in metrical form. 

Contrasts 

It would be well for the teacher to quote several 
passages illustrative of other movements, such as : — 

"Dosn't thou 'ear my 'erse's legs, as they canters awaay ? 
Proputty, proputty, proputty — that's what I 'ears 'em saay. 
Proputty, proputty, proputty." 

"Alone, alone, all, all alone, 
Alone on a wide, wide sea ! 
And never a saint took pity on 
My soul in agony." 

"When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, 

The line too labors, and the words move slow ; 

Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, 

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main." 

"The moan of doves in immemorial elms, 
The murmur of innumerable bees." 



LITERATUEE IN GRAMMAR GRADES 247 

And after these illustrations he should assign 
for reading or study one or more other poems in 
which the rhythm is obvious and especially helpful 
in expressing the thought and feeling. Scott's "Oh! 
young Lochinvar is come out of the west," from 
"Marmion," Walter Thornburg's "The Cavalier's 
Escape," and Browning's "Cavalier Tunes" are 
good for this purpose. Other good poems of horses 
and rides are: Bret Harte's "Chiquita," Cowper's 
"John Gilpin," Longfellow's "Paul Eevere's Ride," 
and Reade's "Sheridan's Ride." 

Importance of the Ride 

Through this introduction the class have gained 
not only some understanding of one use of rhythm ; 
they have also acquired the story and a preparation 
for later study. To use immediately something of 
what has been learned, the teacher may ask next: 
"Do you think the errand for which this ride was 
taken was urgent? Give me all the reasons you have 
for thinking so." Among the numerous answers — 
a teacher should be content with no fewer than a 
dozen — will of course be that the urgency of the 
errand is emphasized by the continued galloping of 
the horses. And here the teacher should call atten- 
tion to the fact that immediately after each inter- 
ruption, as in stanzas VI. and VIII., the movement 
is immediately resumed. 

Such directions as last given serve a double pur- 
pose : they develop one element of appreciation and 
they also send the class back and back again to the 



248 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

poem. Repeated readings or references to the poem, 
provided the class are kept interested, will neces- 
sarily result in a better understanding and a deep- 
ened impression. 

The Time Setting 

If the question of why horses were used to send 
a message apparently so important has not been 
raised, an interesting assignment will be: "When 
was this ride taken?" Some pupils — and teachers, 
too, alas ! — will incline immediately to hunt a history 
to find the answer; but this is a case, one will on a 
moment's reflection see, where the historical setting, 
even if there were one, would not help us in the least 
to enjoy the poem. Browning once wrote to an. 
inquirer : 

"There is no sort of historical foundation for the poem 
abont 'Good News from Ghent.' I wrote it under the bulwark 
of a vessel, off the African coast, after I had been at sea long 
enough to appreciate even the fancy of a gallop on the back 
of a certain good horse 'York/ then in my stable at home." 

Reference to histories, then, being barred, sharp 
eyes will soon note the (16 — ) immediately under the 
title. "Why does Browning give us the century in 
which the ride was taken ? " If this question does not 
develop a satisfactory answer, it may be followed by 
another: "How would an important message be 
sent today 1 ' ' And when the children have listed the 
numerous more effective means that we now have, 
they will probably need little help in seeing that if 



LITERATUKE IN GRAMMAR GRADES 249 

the ride was taken before the invention of telegraph, 
heliograph, airships, and the like, then the best 
means was the one chosen. 

Very naturally involved in this discussion is the 
question : "Why did the author give the date vaguely 
as 16 — , instead of 1624 or some other definite year?" 
If some pupil asks the question, as he is likely to do, 
he may be asked in return: "If you saw a definite 
date, like 1689, below the title, what would it make 
you want to know?" This should lead all to see that 
the author's purpose was to set the ride far enough 
back in time to make horses necessary and yet not 
to turn the attention strongly toward any especial 
year, which would suggest an actual ride and its 
historical setting. 

Who Is the Hero? 

The question "Who is the hero?" can be easily 
answered; but a justification of the answer, which 
should be required, will develop the many means that 
the author has taken to emphasize Eoland. The chief 
reason why the horse is the hero, his intelligent 
understanding of the importance of his errand as set 
forth in stanza V., should be made prominent. If 
the class fail of their own accord to find this, they 
may be led to see it by such a question as, "If the 
good news had been sent by an automobile, who 
would be the hero? What makes the difference be- 
tween an effective machine and Roland?" 

"Why are there three horses and riders in the 
story? See what would necessarily be omitted from 



250 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

the poem if there were two; only one. Why, then, 
were not ten or twenty horses and riders sent?" 
Perhaps from these questions the class will be led 
to see that the contrast of Roland with the two horses 
who fell makes him seem even more heroic: the 
author had to choose a number large enough to em- 
phasize Eoland by contrast when the others fell and 
yet not so large as to make the impression confusing 
or the dropping out of companion horses monotonous 
and hence ineffective. Note how the author sub- 
ordinates the other horses — the small number of 
lines devoted to them ; one named once, the other not 
at all; and the like. 

References 

As good an illustration as may be needed of futile 
11 references" is found in this poem. One who does 
not discriminate says at once, "Look up on a map 
all the towns mentioned. ' ' But why 1 Surely tracing 
the ride town by town, even if adequate maps are at 
hand, will add little or nothing to the appreciation 
of the poem. Why, then, it may be retorted, does 
Browning mention all these towns, eleven of them? 
And this is a good question, a particularly good ques- 
tion to assign a class who have not been led through 
hunting up many references to believe that to be the 
true end of the study of literature. If the children can 
not answer the question — at least one fifth grade 
class did it satisfactorily, — they may be led toward 
the answer by other questions : ' ' How far do you 
think the men rode? What makes you think that?" 



LITEEATUEE IN GEAMMAE GEADES 251 

Here the impression of distance is of far more im- 
portance than a knowledge of the exact number of 
miles. A vivid sense of the tedium and discomforts 
of a journey makes one appreciate its length far 
better than a statement of how many miles the jour- 
ney covered. If the children try to name eleven 
consecutive towns on the railroad, they will get some 
understanding of the impression of distance. "What 
became of Roos? Of the unnamed horse? How 
many towns did Roland pass through? When did he 
reach Aix? What was his condition?" If these 
questions do not effect an appreciation of the great 
distance traveled, surely no mere statement of the 
number of miles will be of any avail. 

Appeals Through Sense Images 

By a very few words Browning has the wonderful 
power of suggesting to our minds vivid sense images. 
If a class are to appreciate the heroism of this bring- 
ing the good news from Ghent to Aix, they must go 
all the way, — preferably each reader must in imag- 
ination be one of the riders ; and in taking this 
mighty journey each one must see what the riders 
saw and feel what they felt. A very definite set of 
images is suggested in preparation for the ride itself. 
One student wrote: "It is midnight, and as with a 
feeling of excitement I step through the door out 
into the street I feel the chill air. A moment I look 
across the narrow street and above the quaint houses 
opposite at the stars and the setting moon. But 
immediately I hear the sound of horses' feet, and 



252 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

around the corner come two men with three horses. 
All at once I am filled with a quiet spirit of deter- 
mination to carry the good news through to Aix. 
Without a word one of the men hands me the bridle 
of a restless horse. We spring into the saddles, and 
the journey that means so much to our sister city is 
begun. ' ' 

This description, as will be readily seen, is de- 
veloped after a reading of the entire poem, partly 
from details given here and there and partly from 
the imagination. The details added by an active 
fancy are always interesting. When one boy spoke 
of galloping through the street (Note the singular.) 
of a little town and seeing the people on the porch 
of the post-office, and when another described some 
of the people in the pressing crowd at Aix, there was 
proof positive that their imaginations were at work, 
that they had identified themselves with the rider 
of Eoland and had seen and felt what he had experi- 
enced. Fulness and sincerity of imagery will develop 
only when the atmosphere of the class is kept healthy, 
when much carefully directed practice is given, and 
from the stimulation of the images described by 
others. But it is surprising always what pleasing 
results come from even a small amount of regularly 
bestowed attention. The better the imagery, as a 
rule, the better the identification of self with the inci- 
dent, and hence the more complete the appreciation. 
Imagery will give greater enjoyment all through the 
poem ; it is absolutely necessary in such passages as 
III. 2-5; IV. 1-3, 4-6. 



LITEKATUKE IN GRAMMAR GRADES 353 

Outline and Suggestive Questions 

Other questions that will stimulate thought and 
send the class back and back again to the poem are : 
"Who tells this story? When, do you think? to 
whom? Invent a situation in which he may spin his 
yarn. Be sure that this situation is appropriate and 
that the setting is suitable to the man and the story. 
Why does he begin so abruptly ? Do you think there 
has been any talk before he begins this story? If so, 
what? 

"Is the story underlying the poem told clearly? 
If not, why do you think the author left so many 
things uncertain? Can you supply from your imag- 
ination the details? Be sure they do not contradict 
anything in the poem. Who sends the message? to 
whom? Were they friends or enemies? Where are 
the enemy? Why was Aix in a state of starvation? 
What was the message? Was the ride important? 
Why do you think so ? Is the close of the poem satis- 
factory? Do you know whether Roland lives or 
dies? Would either his living or dying affect our 
opinion of his brave gallop ? ' ' Several of these ques- 
tions can not be definitely answered; but they pro- 
vide interesting exercise for the imaginative and 
critical faculties. Out of the discussion should come 
an appreciation of the author's art of leaving out 
and of vaguely sketching in a satisfactory back- 
ground ; besides this, the essential theme of the story 
should stand out more prominently: Roland's mag- 
nificent physical courage and intelligent co-operation 
with his master. 



254 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

For those who at any time feel pity instead of 

admiration for the horse, it is well to quote from a 

letter written in 1845, by Elizabeth Barrett, who the 

next year married Eobert Browning : 

"Then 'The Kide' — with that touch of natural feeling at 
the end, to prove that it was not in brutal carelessness that 
the poor horse was driven through all that suffering — yes, 
and how that one touch of softness acts back upon the energy 
and resolution and exalts them both, instead of weakening 
anything !" 

Reading the Poem. 

There is very little argument in favor of having a 
class memorize such a poem as "How They Brought 
the Good News ' ' ; but they should at the end of the 
literary study spend at least one period in the oral 
reading of the poem. This reading should not be so 
strongly rhythmical as that directed at the first of 
the study, but it should have that rhythm as a basis 
ever present in the mind's ear. Every variation 
should have a reason, which the literary study has 
prepared. It is frequently charged, and with justice, 
that oral reading in the upper grades is poor; it 
will not be discouraging, however, if it receives an 
amount of preparation and attention similar to that 
bestowed in the earlier years. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Sight Reading 

Sight reading is about the hardest kind of thought- 
getting that children attempt. If one is inclined to 
doubt this statement, it would be well for him to 
recall his own experience in the sight-reading of 
some foreign language or even in English if the 
subject-matter is difficult or the words unusual. 
First comes the painful calling of words, without 
sentence melody or understanding of the content. 
Then, with more practice, will come some fluency 
of articulation, with a hazy perception of the mean- 
ing. And finally, for the best readers, results the 
rare ability to read at sight with apparently the 
same rapidity, clearness, and comprehension as when 
reading pages that have been previously studied. 
The child or the ordinary reader can not be expected 
to do this. 

Material for Practice 

Indeed, in the sight reading of literature it is 
exceedingly rare that anything can be done in the 
way of interpretation other than indicating the tone 
of the poem — whether it is serious or humorous, and 
the like — through the voice. Certainly no more, even 
if so much, should be demanded. Consequently, 

255 



256 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

practice in sight-reading should be confined to such 
material as is denotative, the meaning of which is 
exact and on the surface so that it can be quickly 
grasped. This requires little of the oral reader 
except a good utterance of the words. Such material 
is the ordinary newspaper article and the like. 

A steady insistence on thought-getting from the 
first grade on will greatly facilitate sight reading 
later. By the methods presented in this book the 
child learns to recognize units of thought and expres- 
sion and to retain them in mind until utterance is 
complete. Now must be added to this the oral 
expression of a unit of thought while the eye is 
running ahead and registering one or more new 
ones. Very simple practice in sight-reading, where 
the child reads new sentences composed of the words 
in his limited reading vocabulary, begins as early 
as the first grade; but it is in the upper grammar 
grades that it should be given special attention. 

The Voice Follows the Eye 

Huey* says: 

"The full utterance of the phrases and sentences as such 
follows at a considerable distance behind the eye, a variable 
distance that is greater as the reading is faster, but depends 
also on other factors than rate." He quotes Dr. Quantz as 
reporting from his experiments: "When the reader is pro- 
nouncing a word at the beginning of a line, the eye is on the 
average 7.4 words in advance of the voice ; in the middle, 5.1 
words; and at the end, 3.8, giving an average of 5.4 words. 

* The Psychology and Pedagogy of Eeading, pp. 145-6. 



SIGHT READING 257 

The space between is thus very elastic, expanding and con- 
tracting with each line, but with a uniform regularity — except, 
indeed, where special conditions are introduced ; an unfamiliar 
word, for instance, would decrease the distance to zero, or a 
familiar phrase might increase it to a dozen words. After the 
long pause a period allows, the eye lengthens its lead of the 
voice." 

Quantz thinks that a certain considerable distance 
between eye and voice is a condition of intelligent 
and intelligible reading, as it affords time for the 
brain to grasp at least a part of the idea before the 
mouth utters the words. It seems that practice in 
sight-reading should be of considerable value in 
reading of all kinds, as it stimulates the pace of the 
eye and affords practice in grasping groups of words 
that contain units of thought. 

Practical Suggestions 

Be sure in the early exercises that the material is 
easy for the child, especially that it contains no 
words that he does not know and can not easily rec- 
ognize. Material can be easily secured from the 
newspapers or from reading books of a grade or 
two lower than that in which the child is working 
at the time of the exercise. At first, let him read 
slowly, if need be, gradually increasing the speed. 
But he should never be permitted to read faster than 
he can assimilate the thought. When the sight- 
reader finishes the part assigned him, or at any 
other point, he should be asked to give in his own 
words the sense of the matter. And he must be 



258 -READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

made to feel that, unless lie can do this, he has failed, 
however rapidly he has gone. If the sight reading 
be oral, he must get the sense himself and also cause 
his hearer to get it. The hearer may get the mean- 
ing even though the reader fail to get it ; but that is 
to the former's credit, not to the latter 's. Every 
possible discouragement should be given to the all- 
too-common habit of going over words, silently or 
aloud, without getting the ideas that they were writ- 
ten to convey. 

When sight reading is hard for a child to do, the 
sense of the paragraph may even in a general way 
be given him, so that he may more rapidly recognize 
the thought units. The primary aim is that he shall 
form the habit of sending the eye forward regularly 
to report new groups of words while the mind is 
comprehending and the mouth reporting what the 
eye has passed over. The exercise should be pur- 
sued with regularity, its difficulty being increased 
gradually by more difficult material, by an insistence 
on more speed, and by requirements that the sense 
be better given through the voice, if the reading be 
oral. After all, as Mrs. Martin said before the 
National Educational Association in 1874, "The 
true test is not the ability to read a set piece with 
rhetorical effect, but the power to read at sight and 
continuously, without effort, prose or verse within 
the capacity of the reader's understanding. ' ' 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Silent Reading 

The open and most inviting field in education 
today seems to be that of silent reading. Although 
it is the kind of reading done almost exclusively 
after school days, it is given special attention by 
only an occasional teacher, and by him experiment- 
ally, for there is little agreement as to what should 
be done in training for this kind of work. Psychol- 
ogists and professors of education are just now 
beginning to get results which promise to be helpful. 

The Ends and Aims 

Silent reading, we may define again, is securing 
the thought through the eye from the printed page. 
So it differs little from the fundamental principle 
emphasized all through these pages — thought get- 
ting; but it rigidly excludes the other elements, 
which enter into oral reading and the reading of 
literature. It is merely informational. And to read 
well silently one must be able to read rapidly, to 
change his pace as the difficulty of the subject-matter 
requires, and be able to summarize with some accu- 
racy what he has gone over. 

Reading, in this sense, should mean the getting 
from the printed page what one does not know 

259 



260 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

beforehand or what he aims to find out. Everything 
else is unimportant. As Superintendent F. E. 
Spaulding, a pioneer in this field, has well said :* 

"When one reads a selection for the sake of the informa- 
tion it contains, he may want all the facts, or only the most 
important facts, or the argument, or the trend of thought; 
he may want certain facts, or he may want simply to deter- 
mine whether certain facts are there or not. Each of these 
distinct purposes requires that the selection be read in a way 
adapted to the end sought. 

Variation in Pace 

It has been found by many experimenters, and 
may be verified by any teacher, that children vary 
among themselves greatly in their pace in reading; 
that they read everything, from the newspaper to 
the highest literature, at about the same pace; and 
that there is practically no relation between rapidity 
and retentiveness, some rapid readers being the most 
retentive and some the least. 

It is no uncommon thing to find in an ordinary 
class some pupils who read three times as fast as 
others. In one class a girl read one hundred fifty-six 
pages of a book in an hour; another pupil in the 
same class, sixteen pages of the same book in the 
same length of time. It will be obvious that the 
word "read" is used somewhat loosely, for the girl 
could answer every question asked about what she 

* Preventing and Correcting Defective Beading. 



SILENT READING 261 

had read; the other pupil recalled practically noth- 
ing. On the other hand, one pupil who "read" one 
hundred thirty-five pages of the book, recalled little 
of the story ; whereas another pupil who read twenty- 
five pages retained practically all of it. 

These data awaken a teacher to the importance of 
the matter. What would it not mean if each pupil 
could double his rate of reading and his retentive- 
ness ! How much time we should have in the geog- 
raphy and history and other classes for that work 
which is now crowded out by lack of time! The 
gravity of the matter weighs upon us when we 
realize that the habits early acquired in reading, 
like those in any other activity, tend to persist 
throughout life. 

Some fear that an insistence upon a change in 
pace in reading, as suggested above and as discussed 
by the anonymous writer in the ' ' Atlantic Monthly, ' ' 
cited in the first chapter of this book, will result in 
bad habits. Here let us quote Superintendent 
Spaulding again: 

"No doubt many teachers, accustomed to insist on literal 
thoroughness, will see, in such half-way reading and 'skim- 
ming' as is here advised the sure road to most careless and 
slovenly habits, which, even with all their 'thoroughness/ 
they are unable wholly to correct. A little careful thought on 
the subject, however, can hardly fail to convince them that 
careless and slovenly habits, in reading as in other things, are 
largely due to lack of definite purpose. Consistently working 
for the realization of any definite end, and employing the 
most effective means, no matter what they are, for compassing 



262 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

that end, leave no room for carelessness. On the other hand, 
the mere literal reading of every word, just for the sake of 
thoroughness, gives opportunity, and is really the most fruit- 
ful source of careless and ineffective habits of real reading." 

Three Causes of Bad Habits 

These bad habits of silent reading are due to 
many causes. The causes which concern us, at which 
we can get for improvement, are three: a wrong 
notion of what reading is, dawdling, and " indirect,' ' 
which will be explained presently. Many people have 
impressed upon them that reading is the conscien- 
tious inspection of every word on the page, the 
looking at the word instead of through it. Many of 
us have re-read a page, although we had got all the 
ideas from it, merely because we had not drudged 
through it as we were taught to do. A realization of 
what reading is and of its purpose on each par- 
ticular occasion, will prevent anyone's doing so 
unnecessary and wasteful a thing. 

Dawdling over a book, "hammock reading," as 
some one has called it, tends to establish bad habits 
for reading of all kinds. It is probably wise never 
to read when so physically tired as to drag through 
the pages. There may be some recreation in so 
doing; but there is also apt to be a corresponding 
bad effect when one begins again to read in earnest. 
Any one can get good results by consciously increas- 
ing his pace. Huey says : 

"I have considerably increased my own speed in reading 
by waking up to the fact that my rate was unnecessarily 



SILENT EEADING 263 

slow, and then persistently reading as fast as possible with 
well-concentrated attention, taking care to stop short of fa- 
tigue until the new pace was somewhat established." 

One must do this over and over again, however, 
until the new habit acquires some stability. Most 
people find that they get the whole thought better 
by the faster than by the slower reading, especially 
if a rapid mental review is made at the end of each 
chapter or other large unit of reading. Rapid read- 
ers are, according to Quantz, 37 per cent, superior to 
slow readers in the quality of their work in college. 

' ' Indirect ' ' reading is the kind that involves other 
organs than those required, an imitation of oral 
reading. Here the words are seen, articulated, per- 
haps heard, and finally comprehended, instead of 
awakening immediately in the reader the thoughts. 
This topic is sufficiently discussed in the chapters on 
primary reading, and there lessons are outlined that 
will prevent such bad habits. It is far easier to pre- 
vent than it is to cure. But when a child has learned 
to read by the oral method alone, he can, and often 
does by himself, change to good silent reading habits. 
This he can do by strictly inhibiting lip movements, 
by keeping his finger from the page, and by much 
practice in reading, in this way, material which is 
so interesting that he will not find time for any false 
motions. 

Suggestions 

Learning to read silently as well as orally, the 
inhibition of lip movement and finger pointing, much 



264 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

practice in rapid and thought-acquiring silent read- 
ing, the understanding of what each kind of reading 
is for and deciding when each should be used, "good 
will, concentration, and the habit of dispatch" — all 
these will help one to acquire good habits of silent 
reading. But there are, moreover, many devices 
that will aid a reader, even if he has become habit- 
uated in reading wastefully. 

In the first place, most of the points already men- 
tioned should be steadily insisted on, and the reader 
must be shown that he can read better if he holds 
his book squarely before him so that both eyes can 
move readily across the page and easily find the 
right line when they jump back from right to left. 

A class exercise to promote speed and accuracy is 
this: Give the children a general idea of what a 
paragraph contains ; then set them to find the details. 
As soon as each one is through, he closes his book, 
ready to report, the teacher noting the order in 
which each pupil finishes, thus introducing the spirit 
of contest. ' ' Here is a paragraph, ' ' the teacher may 
say, ' ' that tells us how the Great Stone Face looked. 
Let us see how quickly you can find out. ' ' The pupil 
first closing his book may report first, the others 
supplying the details that he omits. If he omits any- 
thing essential, he has failed, however rapidly he 
went over the lines. By insisting on this, the teacher 
will soon make the class realize that they must be 
accurate as well as rapid. 

One teacher reports excellent results from direct- 
ing the reading of a story or other article by a series 



SILENT BEADING 265 

of outlining questions. If the class is reading "Rip 
Van Winkle" for the first time, she asks: "Where 
are the Catskill mountains and what peculiar thing- 
can you find out about them?" The children then 
read the first paragraph silently and ask any ques- 
tions that arise in their minds from the reading; 
for instance, "Why are they regarded as barom- 
eters?" Then before they read the second paragraph 
the teacher asks, "What sort of village lay at the 
foot of these mountains?" And after reading, the 
children ask any questions or make any comment 
that they desire. It is necessary only now and then 
to ask questions after the reading to see that it is 
well done. 

Then, after this directing drill, may come such 
directions as, "Read this paragraph and see what 
it tells you." When the first pupil is through, every 
pupil is required to close his book, while the most 
rapid reports what he got from the reading. Here 
the insistence is on rapidity and thoroughness. If 
he failed to get any essential point or if he got it 
incorrectly, he has failed in his recitation. 

Later still the teacher sets a problem on a page 
or in a chapter. "Find out when he was born; on 
which side he fought; who were his friends; the 
trend of his argument ; if he makes such and such a 
point;" or any similar direction will set the class 
hurrying to "read" the page or chapter, — that is, 
to get from it the information desired. Each time 
the pupil should, after his recitation, justify it by 
reference to the book. One does not plod through 



266 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

a whole encyclopedia to find a single fact; so he 
should have some directed drill on this kind of read- 
ing. The teacher must remember all the time and 
must insist that this is not careless reading; it is 
wise and economical reading. If his questions in 
directing the exercise are good, going to the core of 
fact each time, there is little danger of the pupils 
thinking that they have either wasted their time or 
that they must read everything in the same manner. 

The last exercise to be suggested is the making of 
synopses. This matter has been treated more fully 
in the next chapter, which should be read in this con- 
nection; in this drill the synopses are to be made 
without reference to the book. The chapter, or other 
unit, is read as fast as the abilities of the children 
permit; and then, to test the excellence of the read- 
ing, a synopsis, written or oral, is required. Of 
course material easily within the mental grasp of 
the children should be used, and equally, of course, 
the requirements cannot be so rigid as when the 
book is used for the details; but the chief steps 
should be given in proper order. Most of the 
teacher's attention will, naturally, be given to the 
matter of proportion. Why is this point made so 
important in the report? Why is that omitted al- 
together? 

This is a difficult work, but not too difficult for 
upper grade children, if they have learned in the ear- 
lier grades to get similar ideas and relations from 
smaller units. If they have not learned to get the 
thought from a sentence, they must begin there; if 



SILENT READING 267 

a paragraph is too much for them to assimilate, 
there they must work. But before one can be said 
really to read he must have this power of getting 
from the printed page directly by the eye the 
thought, to understand it, and to be able to report 
it in an intelligent, fairly full, orderly, and propor- 
tionate manner. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

Synopses. 

Inasmuch as thought-getting, not word-callings 
should have been emphasized from the very begin- 
ning of reading, a child by the time he has reached 
the upper grades should be very sharply rebuked 
if he lapses into the wasteful habit of neglecting 
the underlying thought while reading material easily 
within his mental grasp. If his reading matter has 
from the beginning been worth his attention and 
his interest, he is far less likely to acquire this bad 
habit. "In the early reading of thoughtless les- 
sons," declares Superintendent Spaulding, "begins 
the habit of thoughtless reading of all later lessons. ' ' 

But in the upper grades even more should be ex- 
pected. Most of the practical reading in life is not 
of isolated sentences or paragraphs ; it is of com- 
plete articles or even of books. Consequently, a 
reader should have some power, after completing 
an article, to give an intelligent and proportionate 
summary of its contents. The importance of this 
is recognized as soon as it is mentioned; but, 
strangely enough, little is done in the schools to 
train pupils in making such synoptic reports. 

Of course this is not an exercise that should be 
entirely delayed in school; but it is of peculiar im- 

268 



SYNOPSES 269 

portance to the upper grades, where the mechanics 
of reading have been largely mastered and where 
the minds of the children are matured enough to 
grasp larger divisions and to understand, at least 
to some extent, the importance of relations and pro- 
portions. 

The Different Forms of Discourse 

Writers and writings differ greatly in their out- 
lines. Narration is apt to be largely a sequence of 
incidents, arranged just as they happened or would 
happen in life. Exposition, or explanation, on the 
other hand, proceeds usually from effect back to 
causes: we are told what a volcano is, how it acts, 
and then of the causes. Sometimes, of course, an- 
other order will be adopted. Description is espe- 
cially hard to analyze into an outline, as it may be 
treated in so many different ways. And argumenta- 
tion, the fourth general kind of writing, usually pre- 
sents its proposition and then, in strict order, its 
supporting proofs. 

When this exercise of making synopses is first 
formally undertaken, the teacher should be sure to 
choose articles the outlines of which are easily seen. 
Usually an exposition of how something is made 
or what it is, presents the best material for synop- 
ses, as argumentation, which requires of its writer 
the clearest outline, is hard for the children to under- 
stand. Some stories, too, are good material. Here 
is a skeleton of Washington Irving 's delightful old 



270 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

story of Bip Van Winkle. This is given in the 
form of an analysis so that the relative propor- 
tions may be seen. As indicated later, the teacher 
may require this to be filled out, orally or in writ- 
ing, as fully as he pleases. 

A Synopsis of Rip Van Winkle 

I. Introduction. 

1. Place 

(a) mountains 

(b) village 

2. Kip, popular and lazy 

(a) his children 

(b) his wife 

(c) his dog 

II. Eip's Adventure. 

1. Introduction 

(a) why on the mountain 

(b) the view 

2. The stranger 

3. Eip helps the stranger 

4. The quaint company 

5. The stolen drinks and sleep 

III. After the Awakening. 

1. Surprises in the mountains 

2. Changes in the village 

(a) the village grown 

(b) his home deserted 

(c) at the tavern 

3. Finally recognized and is told facts 

IV. Conclusion. 

1. Shelter with his daughter 



SYNOPSES 



271 



Another form of synopsis is illustrated in the 
following analysis of one of the Autocrat Papers :* 



The proposi- 
tion : Slang 
is worse than 
making puns. 



Slang does 
not truly 
characterize 
its object. 



Examples : 
'fast,' 'slow,' 
'brick,' 'cut 
up.' 



Slang fails to 
discriminate 
shades of 
meaning. 



When freely 
used it cor- 
rupts and 
starves 
vocabulary. 



I think there is one habit, — I said to our com- 
pany a day or two afterwards, — worse than that 
of punning. It is the gradual substitution of cant 
or slang terms for words which truly characterize 
their objects. I have known several very genteel 
idiots whose whole vocabulary had deliquesced into 
some half dozen expressions. All things fell into 
one of two great categories, — fast or slow. Man's 
chief end was to be a brick. When the great calam- 
ities of like overtook their friends, these last were 
spoken of as being a good deal cut up. Nine-tenths 
of human existence were summed up in the single 
word, bore. These expressions come to be the al- 
gebraic symbols of minds which have grown too 
weak or indolent to discriminate. They are the 
blank checks of intellectual bankruptcy ; — you may 
fill them up with what idea you like ; it makes no 
difference, for there are no funds in the treasury 
upon which they are drawn. Colleges and good- 
for-nothing smoking clubs are the places where 
these conversational fungi spring up most luxuri- 
antly. Don't think I undervalue the proper use 
and application of a cant word or phrase. It adds 
piquancy to conversation, as a mushroom does to 
a sauce. But it is no better than a toadstool, 
odious to the sense and poisonous to the intellect, 
when it spawns itself all over the talk of men and 



* Quoted, by permission of the publishers, Allyn and Bacon, 
from Scott & Denney's Composition-Literature, pp. 331-333. 



272 



BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



Its source is 
contemptible. 



Objection : 
The Autocrat 
sometimes 
uses slang 
himself. 



Reply : 
(a) On rare 
occasions a 
slang phrase 
may be pre- 
cisely what 
is needed. 



(6) Absolute 
proscription 
is not advo- 
cated by the 
Autocrat. 



youths capable of talking, as it sometimes does. 
As we hear slang phraseology, it is commonly the 
dish-water from the washings of English dandy- 
ism, school-boy or full-grown, wrung out of a 
three-volume novel which had sopped it up, or 
decanted from the pictured urn of Mr. Verdant 
Green, and diluted to suit the provincial climate. 

The young fellow called John spoke up sharply 
and said, it was "rum" to hear me "pitchin' into 
fellers" for "goin' it in the slang line," when I 
used all the flash words myself just when I pleased. 

I replied with my usual forbearance. — Certainly, 
to give up the algebraic symbol because a or b is 
often a cover for ideal nihility, would be unwise. 
I have heard a child laboring to express a certain 
condition, involving a hitherto undescribed sensa- 
tion (as I supposed), all of which could have been 
sufficiently explained by the participle — bored. I 
have seen a country clergyman, with a one-story 
intellect and a one-horse vocabulary, who has con- 
sumed his valuable time (and mine) freely, in 
developing an opinion of a brother minister's dis- 
course which would have been abundantly charac- 
terized by a peach-down-lipped sophomore in the 
one word — slow. Let us discriminate, and be shy 
of absolute proscription. I am omniverbivorous by 
nature and training. Passing by such words as are 
poisonous, I can swallow most others, and chew 
such as I can not swallow. 

Dandies are not good for much, but they are 
good for "something. Then invent or keep in cir- 
culation those conversational blank checks or coun- 
ters just spoken of, which intellectual capitalists 



(c) A slang 
phrase may 
be filled with 
meaning by a 
man of 
thought. 



SYNOPSES 273 

may sometimes find it worth their while to bor- 
row of them. — Holmes: The Autocrat of the 
Breakfast Table, II, p. 353. 



Questions for Criticism 

The reports that the children make will probably 
be defective in many ways. The teacher's first 
attention should be given to the question, "Has the 
pupil got the right notion from the whole article?" 
Then, "Has he reported everything of importance?" 
and, "Are all of the necessary details reported in 
their proper order?" 

Finally comes the most difficult task of deciding 
what shall be included in and what excluded from 
the report. Probably the best way of going at this 
problem is to decide first on the large divisions of 
the article and the relation of these divisions. Thus, 
the story of Eip Van Winkle falls into four, possi- 
bly three, parts. The first gives the setting for what 
follows and introduces Rip and his family; the sec- 
ond, Rip's adventure; the third, the bewilderment 
of the poor man when he awakens from his long 
sleep, and the explanation of his absence; and the 
fourth, if a fourth be made of one paragraph, the 
shelter that the old man receives for his last days. 

What, next, are the larger units under these divi- 
sions? These are indicated in the outline on page 
214 by arabic numerals. Thus the analysis may be 
continued, subdividing each division made, until the 
report has reached its proper limits. It is profitable 



274 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

occasionally, especially after there has been some 
practice on this sort of thing, to have several synop- 
ses, each of different length, made of the same arti- 
cle. This gives a good drill in proportionate values. 

Synopses in Private Reading 

When a pupil has difficulty in remembering what 
he has read in study, it is a good plan for the teacher 
to help him privately. After he has read a para- 
graph, the pupil is asked to tell in his own way 
what he learned from it ; then, after a group of para- 
graphs, what he learned from them. The failure 
to do this regularly is the cause of as much lost time 
as any other one thing. Many of the best readers 
make it a practice, after finishing an article or a 
chapter in a book, or even the book itself, to turn 
the pages again, slowly recalling the points made 
by the author. This, one will find by trial, is a great 
help to the memory. This is the best time, too, for 
testing the truth of the author's statement and for 
meditating over what was read. But before this 
review can be made the reader must have formed 
the habit of getting the thought from each para- 
graph as he goes over it. Indeed, there is no other 
way to read. 

Although this is a part of the reading work in 
school, it should not be confined merely or even 
largely to literary material — stories, poems, and the 
like. Indeed, its chief practical value will lie in the 
help it will give pupils with their future acquisition 
of information, both in and out of school. There 



SYNOPSES 275 

are few single powers which, if mastered early, will 
save more time and give more practical help in later 
study than the power of being able to make an in- 
telligent, comprehensive, and proportionate sum- 
mary of what is read. 



CHAPTER XXV 

The Assignment 

"When the child first enters the school, he is in- 
clined by nature to follow the passing show; he 
lacks the ability to concentrate. Consequently, he 
is led from recitation to game and from game to 
manual work, spending but a short time in each. 
But as he proceeds through the grades, the number 
of studies grows fewer and the periods longer. This 
marks, in a general way, the organization which the 
school has to correspond with the growth in sus- 
tained and independent attention on the part of the 
child. 

For the child to reach this goal much direction 
is necessary, especially in the earlier years in school. 
With the exception of the recitation proper, which 
must always remain the paramount factor in the 
school work, no other agency is so far-reaching and 
so fraught with beneficial results in the hands of a 
resourceful teacher as the assignment. Well made, 
the assignment saves the time of the succeeding reci- 
tation and makes it more profitable than it possibly 
could be without the preparation of the child's mind 
that is afforded through the assignment. 

276 



THE ASSIGNMENT 277 

The Immediate and the Ultimate Purpose 

The immediate purpose of the assignment is, as 
just suggested, to guide the child in preparing for 
whatever the new recitation will present, to direct 
him toward the accomplishment of whatever he can 
do by himself, in all cases saving the time of the 
recitation proper. The immediate purpose varies, 
of course, according to the difficulty or strangeness 
of the new material and according, also, to the 
knowledge, industry, and habits of the children; 
but, at the same time, all assignments should have 
the same remote purpose. They are intended to 
afford growth toward independence and initiative 
in thought and action. Teachers will do well to re- 
member that however varied the immediate de- 
mands, the ultimate purpose has a constant claim, 
too, which should influence every assignment made. 

Superintendent Spaulding has made some excel- 
lent suggestions for the assignment of a reading 
lesson.* 

"In the first place the teacher should always have a definite, 
particular, and satisfactory reason for assigning each indi- 
vidual lesson. The order of the book, or general practice in 
reading, won't suffice. This reason should be based on the 
teacher's knowledge of her pupils, their interests and needs, 
and on a knowledge of the lesson. Ordinarily no lesson re- 
ceives less, while hardly one needs more, careful preparation 
by the teacher than does the reading lesson. The answer to 
the question, What are the pupils to read the lesson for? will 

* Preventing and Correcting Defective Beading. 



278 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

suggest definite directions for the preparation of the lesson. 
The central and most important end is always, of course, to 
get the thought. But for young readers, or for those with 
the word reading habit firmly fixed, this end must be made 
definite by concrete questions. From a study of the lesson 
the teacher may form a series of questions, the answers to 
which by the pupil will necessitate his getting the thought of 
the lesson. The questions should be so constructed that they 
can not be answered in the words of the book. As a nega- 
tive of this positive requirement, the pupil should always be 
required to note every word, phrase, or statement which means 
nothing to him, or about whose meaning he is not perfectly 
sure." 

At first all assignments chould be made by the 
teacher with great care and precision. As the chil- 
dren grow in power, they may occasionally be per- 
mitted to suggest the assignment, which will be dis- 
cussed and amended by the teacher in class. Later 
still they may sometimes be trusted entirely to make 
the assignment and prepare the lesson by it. Much 
of this, however, will not occur until late in the 
grades. It affords an excellent means of strength- 
ening the selective power and of encouraging origi- 
nality. 

Characteristics of a Good Assignment 

In making the assignment, no less than in teach- 
ing the lesson, it is wise that the teacher keep con- 
stantly in mind that one thing at a time should be 
attempted. There are so many ways in which the 
children should improve that the teacher, especially 



THE ASSIGNMENT 279 

when young and ambitious, is inclined to attempt 
too many at a time and consequently gets no satis- 
factory and permanent results from any of them. 
It is far better to make haste step by step, steadily 
even if slowly. 

It is not possible that perfection be obtained in 
any field of reading before another is attempted. 
But work must be done definitely on one thing at 
a time. It may be that the time given definitely to 
one phase of reading — synopses, for example — is 
only five minutes a day; but that time should all 
be taken up with the one topic. Or the whole reci- 
tation period may be given to one phase of reading 
until the children understand it, realize its impor- 
tance, and make some improvement. Then it may 
be left for a while and taken up again later for fur- 
ther work and progress. 

It is the hope, of course, that the children, by 
applying what they have learned in class to their 
own private reading and study, will have made some 
independent progress. This should be encouraged 
by the teacher in every way possible. The assign- 
ment can save time by directing the class to the 
phase of reading that needs particular attention, 
demanded by either the selection to be read or the 
progress of the class, and by insisting that other 
phases of reading already studied shall not be wholly 
lost sight of while new matter is undertaken. 

It is rather trite to say that the assignment should 
be definite, but in the reading and literature classes 
teachers often sin grievously in this respect. The 



280 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

assignment should cover specific matter, have defi- 
nite limits, and it should always be clear and simple. 
However, if made by pages or by topics it may still 
possess these marks and fail to be illuminating: It 
will not do to say, "Prepare for tomorrow the next 
two pages"; the child must be told definitely how 
to prepare them. Shall he imagine himself the 
speaker and then, after realizing the incident, make 
his audience understand, through his reading, not 
only the facts but also how the hero felt? Or does 
he need especially to practice enunciation! Or does 
the lesson demand for its comprehension a careful 
synopsis? The teacher must decide first and then 
tell the class definitely what he will expect of them. 

A series of assignments upon a given topic or 
selection should be marked, also, by progressiveness 
in difficulty, or there will be little growth in the 
child. If there are a number of lessons on one 
selection the proper sequence and the connection 
should be kept before the class, largely by review, 
but partly by the assignment. 

A good assignment, moreover, often appeals to 
the judgment and taste of the pupils. After they 
have got the facts through silent reading, they have 
the problem, "How can I best interpret the spirit 
of the selection to my hearers?" In answering this 
question there are, of course, many elements to be 
considered, formally or informally. There are the 
tone, stress, pitch, shades, inflections, music, time, 
and the like of the voice (though the child will hardly 



THE ASSIGNMENT 281 

use any of these terms), facial expression, gesture, 
and perhaps action. 

A good assignment will put the child in a mood 
to work on his lesson and will stimulate him to 
attack and solve the problems before him. In addi- 
tion to these points, the assignment must not only 
be capable of being mastered within a reasonable 
time, but it must be adapted to the abilities and ca- 
pacities of the pupils. 

Assignments should develop familiarity with the 
lesson. It is questionable how much explanation 
should be given by the teacher. Some assert that 
the teacher should not even point out difficulties 
sure to arise, but should leave the child to work out 
his own salvation free and unhampered by any in- 
struction or assistance. This view seems far-fetched 
and its practice will probably entail a great waste 
of time and energy. It will lead to the magnifying 
of trivialities and result in unorganized knowledge. 
It probably is a good practice in the lower grades 
to explain nearly all the difficulties, and in the upper 
grades to make the assignment in such a way as to 
assist in removing them. 

In sending a child to the reading lesson to search 
out the new words, the strange and. unfamiliar ex- 
pressions, the allusions, and the like, and in urging 
him to get their meaning in relation to the rest of 
the context, the teacher is giving him invaluable aid. 
If the lesson is such as to require directions to 
sources and references, these should be definite and 
specific, so that there is the minimum waste of time 



282 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

in looking them up and so that the child will feel 
that he has received real assistance. But if the 
references are carelessly and loosely given, the pu- 
pils are excusable for procrastinating and time- 
wasting in their preparation. 

An assignment good for one class on a certain 
day may be poor for the same class on another day. 
There are many variable elements, so that each 
teacher must, working from certain accepted princi- 
ples, make afresh each time assignments that are 
appropriate to the selection and to the class. 

Test of an Assignment 

The value of an assignment is shown in the degree 
of interest aroused and maintained in the class in 
its study apart from the teacher. More time is lost 
here and energy wasted than we are usually aware. 
The secret of making good assignments is the 
teacher's knowledge of his pupils and of the thing 
to be taught. If he knows both, he will be able to 
arouse the curiosity of the former in the latter. Any 
device which will do this is justifiable. If an appeal 
to the "puzzle instinct" in searching out new words, 
strange expressions, or novel situations begets such 
interest, it is worth using. 

If in the recitation, or even when making the as- 
signment, the teacher works up to an absorbing 
point and then leaves it in suspense, the children 
will return to the subject with a glow during the 
study hour. In order to arouse interest and give 
a basis for understanding, it is often necessary to 



THE ASSIGNMENT 283 

make concrete the text by giving illustrations. But 
the one thing which will likely arouse the greatest 
interest in the children is the interest of the teacher 
in the thing he is doing. His enthusiasm and in- 
terest are contagious. If they are real, they will 
carry over to the pupils and will find expression in 
study and recitation. 

Assignments for Preparation 

Giving the " setting" of the selection in reading 
is often a great aid in its mastery. This is made 
clearer, perhaps, by the following quotation from 
Bagley:* 

"In a reader used in a fifth grade, Lincoln's Gettysburg 
Address is given. The writer attempted to have fifth grade 
pupils read this under the ordinary method of assignment, 
'Take your readers, turn to page 65, and study this lesson/ 
He found the result so inadequate that he had the pupils 
close their books, and then he told them the story of Gettys- 
burg, making as clear as possible the situation between the 
North and South, showing the decisive character of the battle, 
and dwelling briefly upon the tremendous loss of life that 
was involved, and the general significance of the victory. All 
this was necessary in order to show why an occasion had arisen 
for Lincoln's address. Then he went through the text, care- 
fully explaining the allusions and assigning the reading for 
the next lesson. The pupils worked at it during the study 
period and came to the recitation well prepared. Since that 
time he has made it a practice always to have masterpieces of 
literature carefully assigned and frequently read aloud to the 

* Class Eoom Management, p. 204. 



284 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

class before setting the class to work upon them independ- 
ently." 

The study of the reading lesson may often be very 
greatly assisted and the assignment illuminated if 
the teacher tells the story or a part of the story of 
the advance lesson, especially if it is difficult or if 
a preliminary knowledge of it is necessary for the 
understanding of the assignment. This is not only 
economical, but it is apt to inspire interest. It fur- 
nishes a basis for study and gives significance to 
details. Sometimes this will be found quite as serv- 
iceable and valuable a device as giving the ' ' setting. ' ' 

Such practices as the above not only familiarize 
the pupil with the lesson, but they put him in the 
right mood for study. When the teacher gives the 
class a glimpse of the pleasant scenes beyond, there 
is an added incentive for work. The acme of a good 
assignment for oral reading is realized when a child 
experiences, on his return to class, a desire to com- 
municate what he lias studied. He wants to ex- 
press it. However, he must also feel that there are 
those present desiring to hear. These two things 
react upon each other. They are complementary. 

Eeferring to the assignment in reading, Spaulding 
says:* 

"Since, in the very nature of things, the young reader's at- 
tention will be largely occupied with word forms, the strongest 
possible influences should be constantly provided by the teacher 
to pull the attention away more and more from the forms, as 

* Loe. cit., pp. 8-9. 



THE ASSIGNMENT 285 

they become familiar, and focus it on the thought. In the 
whole conduct of the reading lesson, and in the directions for 
its preparation, let the teacher have this question, as a guide, 
constantly before her: Where am I directing the pupil's 
thought primarily ?" 

If the assignment is short and of a kind familiar 
to the children, it may be given orally; but if it is 
at all long or of a new form, let it by all means be 
written. It is demoralizing to teacher and class alike 
when there is misunderstanding as to what the as- 
signment was. If the assignment is written on the 
board, preferably before the class begins, it may be 
copied by pupils during the study period. But it is 
economical of time and far better in every way for 
the teacher to own a mimeograph of some kind and 
give each child a correct copy of the assignment. 

Spelling and Reading 

As the assignment in reading frequently involves 
familiarizing the pupil with the difficult words of 
the lesson, it cannot be discussed in detail without 
showing certain important relations existing be- 
tween spelling and reading. This relation may be 
thought of in two ways; viz., spelling as an aid to 
reading, and reading as an aid to spelling. In either 
case, spelling should begin at the time or soon after 
the child enters upon the study of reading selec- 
tions as wholes. In reading, spelling is not con- 
cerned with differentiating letters, but with seeing 
words as wholes, recognizing and writing them as 
such. But this involves, of course, clear perception 



286 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

of the details of forms, whether as letters or merely 
as marks. 

Should spelling be viewed as an aid to word rec- 
ognition, which, with many, is thought to be the 
preferable view, the words selected for study should 
be those which will occur in some future reading 
lesson. They should be spelled and used orally in 
sentences similar to the ones used in the reading 
lesson, and then written and rewritten from mem- 
ory. In this way, spelling assists in clearing the 
path of difficult words in reading. 

Should reading be thought of as an aid to spell- 
ing, a view with which we are not here deeply con- 
cerned, the difficult words that have been developed 
in the reading lesson should be written in simple 
sentences and special attention given to the spelling. 
In this case, reading prepares the way for spelling. 

It remains to be said that the spelling of all diffi- 
cult words in reading need not be taught. For 
many words will be met in the reading lesson which 
are never in the written or spoken vocabulary of 
the child. Only such words should be chosen for 
serious study as will be used by the child in his 
daily life. Of course all words will be understood, 
but a careful study of the more difficult ones is 
hardly desirable unless they are necessary to some 
future language or reading work. 

Time of the Assignment 

The question of how much time shall be devoted 
to the assignment sometimes arises. The answer 



THE ASSIGNMENT 287 

is, Just enough to make it clear and definite, to re- 
move the obscurities and certain difficulties, and to 
create enough interest to insure further study. 
Sometimes this can be done in a few minutes; at 
other times it will require a whole recitation period. 
Neither the time element nor how much the teacher 
says is so important as the suggestiveness of what 
he says and does. The assignment is the place for 
raising problems for the children to solve and for 
creating an interest in those problems. Haste and 
slovenliness are always to be avoided as being de- 
structive to energetic effort on the part of the pupils. 
Another question which sometimes arises is, When 
shall the assignment be made! There is no rule 
which can be established to govern the time for 
making the assignment. Sometimes it should be at 
the opening of the recitation ; at other times it must 
of necessity be at the close. In either case, ample 
time should be given it. Individual assignments, 
however, such as telling a pupil that he will be held 
responsible for the pronunciation, meaning, or spell- 
ing of some word at the next recitation, may be 
made in the midst of the recitation; indeed that is 
the most appropriate and effective time to make 
them. 

The Importance of the Assignment 

The importance of the assignment can scarcely 
be overestimated. Teachers need to appreciate the 
necessity of exercising as great care and skill iu it 
as in the recitation proper. They must see that they 



288 EEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

select the phase of the material that is suited to the 
ability of the children, that they correlate it with 
the old, and that by the nature of the assignment 
they make it inviting. To send children away from 
class day after day with nothing but text-book as- 
signment leads to verbalizing of the worst sort. 
When they return to class they naturally recite the 
text and do precious little thinking. However dili- 
gent they may be in preparation or eager in recita- 
tion, it is a case of false industry. 

If, on the other hand, the teacher constantly strives 
to awaken the maximum amount of mental effort in 
all the children in their seat work, as well as in the 
recitation, there cannot fail to be permanent profit. 
Then and only then will the pupils return to the 
class with a feeling that they are masters of the 
lesson, with the spirit of a returned explorer, anxious 
for a test which will establish the truths they have 
so earnestly sought. The high water mark of teach- 
ing is realized when the teacher so handles the sub- 
ject in class that each pupil gives his undivided at- 
tention and delighted participation every minute, 
and when he is so skilful in making his assignment 
that each pupil is caught up by the enthusiasm of 
investigation and, in liis own small way, becomes a 
real scholar in his attitude toward his problems. 
We must acknowledge that this ideal can never be 
fully realized, but it is always worth striving for. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

Dramatics 

As has been shown earlier in the book, dramatic 
presentation of the reading material in the primary 
grades is in many ways exceedingly helpful. 
Strangely enough, teachers often, after that point, 
Stifle the dramatic instinct of children until the high 
school undertakes to present a "sure enough'' play 
at the opera house. No wonder that often becomes 
drudgery ! 

It has seemed wise, however, in many schools to 
continue the dramatic element of the reading lesson, 
somewhat modified perhaps, straight through the 
grades. In cases where this is done, there is a 
unanimous and enthusiastic opinion that it is well 
worth while. It has also been undertaken with 
profit in the upper grades of schools where no 
dramatic work at all, or practically none, had pre- 
ceded. In this latter case, however, it has to be 
initiated very carefully, or the already too self-con- 
scious upper-grade child will flatly rebel at what he 
considers foolishness. 

The Simplest Form 

It is hardly worth while, unless the speeches are 
exceedingly short, for any memorizing to be done. 

289 



290 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

The reading lesson proceeds as usual until some 
dramatic passage occurs. After it has been studied 
just as other parts of the lesson, two children are 
asked to read the directly quoted speeches, giving 
the situation and interpretation, so far as possible, 
through their voices. Occasionally a scene in which 
the speeches are given indirectly, or partly so, will 
offer excellent material for dramatic reading of this 
kind. In such cases, the children must turn the in- 
direct discourse into direct, omitting, as explained 
above, superfluous matter. Following, for instance, 
is an example of indirect discourse and the same 
material as read by the children : 

"I therefore ordered him instantly to go and bring some 
of those mussels to me, saying that I intended to eat them, 
but that he could in this respect please himself. He here- 
upon, after thinking a moment or two, got up to obey me, and 
walked away for this purpose; but I heard him, whilst oc- 
cupied in the task, lamenting his fate most bitterly. It was 
true, he said, that he had not died either of hunger or thirst, 
etc." — Gray : Travels in Northwest and Western Australia. 

This, turned into the dialogue form, becomes : 

Sir George (With hand outstretched, speaking sternly) : Go 
instantly and bring some of those mussels to me ! I intend 
to eat them. You may in this respect please yourself. 

Kaiber (Goes a little way apart, pretends to collect mussels, 
speaking bitterly to himself) : It is true that I have not died 
of hunger or thirst, etc. 

The pupils will, of course, not read the author's 
comment or descriptive matter, omitting that or giv- 
ing the effect through interpretation. 



DRAMATICS 291 

Then follows, as a matter of course, a discussion 
by the class, usually very enthusiastic or easily 
made so, as to whether the speeches have been so 
read as to show the kind of person the speaker is, 
the way he felt, etc. Differences of opinion must 
be illustrated and thus compared, until, with the 
teacher's help, several shades of interpretation are 
given. By reference to the other parts of the story 
it is often possible for the class to decide pretty 
wisely concerning which reading is most effective. 

Advantages 

Taken so simply as this, dramatic work differs 
little from the ordinary class reading, except that 
it is apt to inspire much more interest and lead to 
a keener insight. It also gives the child something 
definite to do in that usually most indefinite of 
things, the preparation of the reading lesson. When 
practicable, children should be given some place 
about the school house, where, singly or in groups, 
they may rehearse orally their interpretation of the 
reading lesson. Some children, it is objected, can- 
not be trusted to study out of sight of the teacher. 
It is equally true, however, that some children 
should be so trusted — and held to account for re- 
sults. After the novelty wears off, the right kind 
of encouragement and pressure will bring results. 

Interpretative vs. Imitative 
This so-called dramatic reading should be inter- 
pretative and suggestive, rather than imitative. It 



292 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

is better for the pupil, by his reading and slight 
acting, to make the auditors imagine how the char- 
acter looked than it is to look the part himself. Of 
the two extremes, it seems wiser to err on this side 
than to overdo the matter of imitation ; though some 
teachers think otherwise, holding that eventually 
much of the exaggeration will fall away or be more 
wisely used. But most oral reading in life will be 
of the suggestive kind, which, indeed, is harder to 
do perfectly than acting. 

When one child interprets a part considerably 
better than his fellows, he should be given a kind 
of title to it, reading it when the story is reviewed 
for any purpose. Naturally one child will be better 
in a certain role than others are, and the recogni- 
tion of his success is a fitting reward and stimulus 
to him and to the other members of the class to 
perfect other parts later on. 

In this simple dramatic work, it is unnecessary 
to have any scenery or costumes. They would de- 
feat rather than effect the very end of suggestive- 
ness that is sought. Let the children feel their 
parts : the imagination will do the rest. A chair or 
similar article of furniture may be needed and used 
sometimes; but if any unusual article is required, 
a representative is better than the real article itself. 
A stick, for instance, would serve better in a scene 
where the king knights a subject than a real sword, 
though in most cases neither is really necessary. 
The world of make-believe is a most wonderful place, 



DRAMATICS 293 

supplying abundantly what the physical eye does 
not see! 

Justifications 

The pleasure and interest that result from such 
simple dramatic work more than justify it, though 
these are not the real ends sought. We use this 
method in order to insist that the pupil realize and 
appreciate in a literary way what he is reading. He 
cannot make us understand from his voice how the 
speaker in the story felt unless he has first found 
out for himself. And the very fact that he has a 
partner in the dialogue, that he has a fairly definite 
goal set for him, affords something that he may 
study and prepare for. The failure of pupils to 
study the assignments that are made by the teacher 
in reading and literature is not infrequently due to 
a lack of knowledge as to what they should study. 
If, through this dramatic reading, he gets into the 
habit of seeing or realizing what he reads about, it 
will immeasurably add to the pleasure that he ever 
afterward has from his reading, especially of liter- 
ature. 

Much of the success of this kind of reading de- 
pends upon the teacher's attitude toward it. It 
should be taken as a matter of course, undue prepar- 
ation tending to make the children too conscious of 
themselves for the best results. It should be taken 
seriously, too, though not funereally. There are al- 
ways children in all grades beyond the primary who 
are ready to giggle at and make a joke of anything 



294 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

unusual. If they are permitted to attempt simple 
dramatization in this spirit, they not only can ac- 
complish nothing themselves, but they also prevent 
the other children from entering easily into the land 
of make-believe. When there is anything amusing 
in the dramatic work, the laugh will come, and of 
course should come; but it is joyous laughter, with 
the actor, in harmony with what he is saying or 
doing, not the miserable, withering laugh of ridi- 
cule, which usually comes from those who are them- 
selves most impotent. It is a shameful thing when 
it is permitted to prevent or to hinder honest effort 
of any kind. Yet a teacher who fails to get the 
point of view of the child that is reciting sometimes 
not only permits it, but even joins in such laughter 
himself. If the teacher is unable to get into the 
spirit of the reading, if he does not really enjoy the 
dramatic presentation of the lesson, probably he 
would better not attempt it at all. 

Public Performances 

Occasionally the simple class work becomes suffi- 
ciently good or interesting to warrant repeating 
before the rest of the school or a few invited friends. 
This is a particularly good way of concluding the 
work with some classic. One class, at least, after 
spending two months on ' ' The Merchant of Venice, ' ' 
read, with pleasure to themselves and the spectators 
at the regular class period, several of the scenes be- 
fore the rest of the school and those parents who 
cared to come. Another class gave several scenes 



DEAMATICS 295 

from "A Midsummer-Night's Dream," inviting the 
primary children to assist them as fairies. 

When it is desirable, as it sometimes is, to give a 
real play with costumes, stage, and an audience of 
townspeople, nothing is more essential than a strong 
feeling of interest and a desire on the part of most 
of the children to undertake the work. It may be 
that the proper spirit is already in the class ; it may 
be that it can be aroused merely by the novelty, its 
attendant excitement, and the desire for display, 
which is strong in many children. Sometimes the 
idea of "being dressed-up" in costumes is the need- 
ed stimulus. Few things are so effective, however, 
as the knowledge that other and older students have 
given successful plays. Some one who has taken 
part in a high school or a college play, or who 
has seen one, can often, by telling of it, give the 
needed stimulus, especially if the pictures of the 
scenes and cast in costume are shown. Many schools 
have souvenir books of their plays, which can be 
bought or borrowed for this purpose. 

The Selection of a Play 

The selection of a good play — a play that is inter- 
esting, clean, of the proper subject and length, de- 
manding such proportion of boys and girls as the 
class affords, and interesting — is sometimes an in- 
superable obstacle. Good plays of any kind are hard 
to find, and the selection of a school play is hedged 
about with many requirements. A list of good plays, 
with a slight description of each, is appended, that 



296 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

this selection may be made a little easier. This list 
does not include any of those "shows" that are 
written merely for attracting a crowd and raising 
the langh. Each play listed has considerable merit 
from the point of view of reading. 

If a play is worth giving, it onght to be good 
enough to use for a while in the literature and read- 
ing class. And there, while its shades of meaning 
and its finer points are being studied, much of the 
committing of lines can be done. At least, it is made 
easier. Moreover the drudgery of rehearsal is made 
less for both pupils and teachers. Most of the re- 
hearsals should be had during school hours, if pos- 
sible, when such discipline can be maintained as 
greatly facilitates and hastens the work. If the play 
is not worth school time, it probably is not worth 
giving at all. In any event, the presence at re- 
hearsals of others than those rehearsing at the time, 
either friends or participants in the play, should not 
be tolerated. Nothing so surely introduces disorder 
or destroys the effectiveness of the work. 

No one can be so successful in training children 
for a play as he who has not only seen many plays, 
but who has himself taken part in at least one that 
was well presented. There are almost numberless 
points, fine and otherwise, which, although they can- 
not be set down categorically and fully, make or mar 
the success of a play. 

Following are a few suggestions that may aid the 
inexperienced or serve to recall to others well-known 
principles. These suggestions are given under the 



DKAMATICS 297 

four heads: the voice, "crossings," "business," and 
stage pictures. 

The Voice 

The inexperienced actor is inclined, owing to the 
novelty of his position and to embarrassment, to 
hurry through his part ; to forget that the audience 
have a right to see, hear, and feel the play; and to 
"mouth" his lines. Consequently, the same excel- 
lence that is expected at the performance should be 
insisted on at each and every rehearsal. Much of 
what is done and said should become so mechanical 
that excitement will not disturb it. At least one, 
and preferably another, rehearsal should be had 
with everything — lights, costumes, stage setting — 
exactly as it is to be at the final performance. 

Hurry is sometimes caused by excitement, but 
quite as often by the novelty of the situation or un- 
certainty of lines or "business." Impress upon the 
amateur that he must know his part thoroughly, that 
he has all the time there is, and that it is worth 
taking to get a good effect. When there is applause 
or laughter, he must wait, if he expects to be heard, 
until it dies down. And when voice and action are 
supposed to go together they must do so, the voice 
perhaps following the action by a fraction of a mo- 
ment. It is ludicrous for the actor to say "There" 
and then point; effective, when he points, thus at- 
tracting the eyes of the audience, and then speaks. 
Few actors, even professionals, ever thoroughly 
learn how effective motionless silence on the stage 
can sometimes be. 



298 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

That the audience may hear well, they should see 
the face of the speaker. This is impossible, of 
course, if one actor stands in front of another who 
is speaking — a not unusual jumble on the amateur 
stage — or if the speaker's back is turned to the foot- 
lights. Very seldom indeed should an actor take 
this position, especially when he is speaking. As 
Marjorie Fleming would say, "When speaking, never 
turn your back to the audience at all — unless you 
have to, ' ' unless there be some very strong dramatic 
reason for so doing. Stage managers sometimes 
draw chalk marks on the floor, which the careless ac- 
tor is obliged to follow until he learns to face the 
front of the stage properly. 

"Mouthing" of the lines will be largely avoided 
if the young actor can remember what he has learned 
in the reading class or if he can continuously remem- 
ber that he is the person whom he represents. It is 
not necessary to speak in a very loud voice. Impress 
upon him these precepts: "Think of some one in 
the rear of the room and try to make him under- 
stand. Throw the words carefully at him, taking care 
that each has time to cross the house. To the very 
end of the sentence keep the voice up. Don't hurry. 
Don't mumble. Don't shout. Don't forget whom 
you represent." 

Crossings 

But, more than this, a play is not merely the repe- 
tition of the lines, however well that may be done. 
The very name actor suggests the other element. 



DEAMATICS 299 

Few things will so surely kill a performance as talk 
without accompanying action. But the action on the 
stage is not a haphazard, fortuitous business. Every 
movement, indeed, should have its reason and its 
significance. It often seems to the uninitiated that 
actors move about the stage quite whenever and 
wherever they choose. Indeed, it should seem so; 
but, as a matter of effective result, their crossings 
and actions are a result of much consideration and 
practice. Everything has its cue, its hint to indi- 
cate when it must be done. Cues for entrance or 
for action on the stage must be taken promptly, or 
embarrassing gaps in the play will follow. 

Actors move about the stage so as to gain posi- 
tion for something that they are to say or do; so 
as to be near their exit, that they may not have to 
hurry to get off when the time comes ; so as to em- 
phasize some speech or act, the crossing of the stage 
making them more prominent to the audience; and 
so as to aid the stage picture — of which more here- 
after. There should be considerable moving about, 
more than one is inclined to think at first ; but every 
move must have some reason behind it. 

Stage Business 

Then, the "business."* This usually means those 
actions, sometimes not indicated in the lines, per- 
formed to emphasize a speech or characteristic, or 

* For an interesting account of stage business and its effects, see 
Professor Matthews' "The Art of the Stage-Manager," especially 
pp. 289-294, in his volume, "Inquiries and Opinions." 



300 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

for the mere fun that comes out of it. Of course it 
should be closely related to the play, not pure addi- 
tion, like the ' ' specialties ' ' between acts of a " cheap 
show." The way an actor manages his cane, the 
flirtations and coquetries of a fan, even facial ex- 
pressions, illustrate what "stage business" is. In 
Sheridan's screen scene of "The School for Scan- 
dal," for instance, when Joseph Surface pretends 
to weep in. commiseration with Sir Peter, they are 
seated side by side. With handkerchiefs to their 
eyes, each seeks the other's hand, to give and re- 
ceive the sympathetic grasp. As their hands blindly 
miss each other, the audience always roars with 
laughter. 

In some editions of plays considerable "business" 
is indicated in directions to the actors. For in- 
stance, in Mrs. Bell's version of "Cinderella," are 
given such directions as: 

"Mabel comes across to chair, L. C. Lucy has 
got up and stands behind chair, watching. The 
Heeald kneels beside her, tries to force on the shoe, 
while Mabel makes faces of agony." 

It must be remembered that all directions are 
given from the point of view of the actors. "L. C." 
above means to the left of the center of the stage, 
facing the audience. "Down stage" means toward 
the footlights; "up stage," to the rear. "Busi- 
ness," like everything else on the stage, may be 
overdone a little without harm. It might be a safe 
rule, then, to say: Imagine what a person under 



DEAMATICS 301 

these circumstances would feel like doing, and then 
do it. 

Stage Pictures 

That a play is to be seen as well as heard must 
not be forgotten. Indeed, the modern arrangement 
of the stage and the proscenium arch makes the 
action on the stage always a picture in a frame. In 
selecting the costumes and scenery, then, this is a 
good guide. The picture that the audience sees is 
the whole stage; so the scenery, properties (chairs, 
tables, etc.), and people must fill the canvas. Beauty 
hides many defects of acting as well as bareness 
of story. Consequently, success is half won at the 
start if the curtain rises upon a pretty picture. A 
director should be particularly careful to select posi- 
tive colors for costumes and hangings, as delicate 
patterns and tones may not be seen. They should 
be tested under the lights that will be used at the 
performance, especially that they harmonize with 
each other. 

But costumes and scenery and decorations are 
only part of the picture. The way the actors are 
placed and the reason therefor is the other part. 
They must stand well on both feet, sit gracefully, 
and walk well. The same principles that govern 
drawing and painting to a great extent govern the 
making of a stage picture. Sometimes the actors are 
widely separated, so as to fill the stage; again, for 
dramatic purpose, they are grouped in one corner, 
some article of furniture satisfying the eye in the 



302 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

unused part of the stage. Occasionally a very bare 
stage, with a few small properties, will emphasize 
loneliness. Again, it is the principle of contrast 
that is needed. One should never present a play 
without watching at least one complete rehearsal 
just from this point of view. Have the articles of 
furniture moved about here and there and experi- 
ment with the position of the actors until a pleasing 
effect is secured. There should always be a focus 
to a stage picture, just as there is to one painted on 
canvas — a point, not necessarily in the exact center 
of the stage, where the eye falls on what is most 
important. Everything on the stage tends to make 
the eye fall here. From this focal point everything 
shades away. The focus may shift here and there, 
but not too often, nor without definite purpose. 

If one who is preparing to present a school play 
can see it or some other given by professionals, even 
those who are not prominent, two or three times, 
often enough so that the mere story does not absorb 
all of the interest, many points at first unnoticed, 
points that add greatly to the effect, will appear. 
Often a mere watching for pictures or business or 
crossings or exits and entrances will by suggestion 
materially add to the success of what amateurs are 
preparing. 

A Selected List of Plays 

Bell, Mrs. Hugh : Fairy Tale Plays and How to Act Them. 
Longmans, Green & Co., New York. ; Price, $1.50. 

This is an excellent book for a teacher to have. It contains 



DEAMATICS 303 

an introduction which gives simple and practical directions 
for arranging the stage, giving a play, and training the chil- 
dren for simple dances. In the body of the book are fourteen 
plays, ranging from a ten-minute dialogue to two plays that 
require a little more than an hour to present. The music 
for simple songs, diagrams for stage settings, and suggestive 
illustrations are also given. The plays are : The Forty 
Thieves, Eumpelstiltzkin, Eed Eiding Hood, Beauty and the 
Beast, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Foolish Jack, The 
Golden Goose, The Tinder Box, The Three Wishes, The Em- 
peror's New Clothes, The Fisherman and His Wife, The 
Sleeping Beauty, Bluebeard. Suitable for grades 4-9. 

Gunnison, Binney : New Dialogues and Plays. Hinds & 
Noble, New York. Price, $1.50. 

These brief dialogues and plays are for the most part ar- 
ranged from books of accepted literary value. An adequate 
statement of the situation, directions for stage business, and 
suggestions for costumes are given. Suitable for grades 5-10. 

Cameron, Margaret: Comedies in Miniature. McClure, 
Phillips & Co., New York. Price, $1.25. 

These eleven plays and monologues were written especially 
for amateur performance. They have been successfully given 
many times. Suitable for grades 11-12. 

Cooke, Marjorie B. : School Plays. Dramatic Publishing 
Co., Chicago. Price, 25c each. 

There are a number of these plays, most of them adapted 
from well-known material for special occasions, such as 
Thanksgiving. They may be given with or without scenery. 
Suitable for grades 5-8. 

Longfellow, H. W. : Hiawatha, dramatized by Florence 
Holbrook. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. Price, 15c. 
Suitable for grades 1-3. 



304 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Longfellow, H. W. : Evangeline, arranged by Mary 
O'Eeilly, in five acts, with songs, dances, and tableaux. A. 
Flanagan, Chicago. Price, 25c. 

Eight male, two female characters, with many Acadians and 
other non-speaking characters; setting, three interiors, two 
exteriors ; costumes, of the period, can be made at home ; time, 
an evening, varying in length according to the dances and 
songs. Suitable for grades 7-12. 

Carroll, Lewis : Alice in Wonderland, dramatized by Mrs. 
Burton Harrison; a play in three acts, with tableaux, songs, 
and dances. The Dramatic Publishing Co., Chicago. Price, 
25c. 

Thirty-odd characters, most of whom may be either male 
or female; settings, two exteriors and an interior; costumes, 
fanciful, as demanded by the story; time, a short evening. 
This is an excellent dramatization of the well-known story. 
It may be altered in many minor ways to suit conditions. 
Suitable for grades 3-6, 10-12. 

Gould, Elizabeth L. : The "Little Men" Play, adapted from 
Louisa M. Alcott's story. Curtis Publishing Co., Philadelphia. 
This also appeared in the Ladies' Home Journal, December, 
1900. 

Six male, four female characters ; setting, a room ; costumes, 
everyday; time, forty-five minutes. A good adaptation of a 
part of this familiar story. Suitable for grades 5-9. 

Gould, Elizabeth L. : The "Little Women" Play, adapted 
from Louisa M. Alcott's story. Curtis Publishing Co., Phila- 
delphia. This also appeared in the Ladies' Home Journal, 
January, 1901. 

Two male, six female characters ; setting a room ; costumes, 
everyday; time, forty-five minutes. A good adaptation from 
a part of this familiar story. Suitable for grades 5-9. 



DKAMATICS 305 

Smith, S. D. : Jack and Jill, founded on parts of the story 
by Louisa M. Alcott. Ladies' Home Journal, December, 1906. 

Seven male, eight female characters (more if desired) ; set- 
ting, easily arranged; costumes, ordinary; time, thirty min- 
utes. Suitable for grades 5-9. 

Burnett, Frances H. : Little Lord Fauntleroy, a drama in 
three acts, founded on the story. Samuel French, New York. 
25c. Permission must be obtained from the publisher before 
this play may be used ; charges, $15. 

Nine male, three female characters; setting, interiors; cos- 
tumes, various, as demanded by the story; time, a full even- 
ing. This is rather an ambitious play for a school to attempt. 
Suitable for grades 9-12. 

Stowe, H. B. : Dialogues and Scenes adapted from her 
writings. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. Price, 15c. Suit- 
able for grades 6-12. 

Guild, T. H. : The Clancey Kids, a comedy in two acts. 
Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston. Price, 15c. 

No male, eighteen female characters ; setting, a garden and 
adjoining backyard ; costumes, everyday ; time, about an hour. 
A simple, wholesome play, in which one set of children show 
some others how to amuse themselves. A part of "A Midsum- 
mer Night's Dream" is introduced. Suitable for grades 6-10. 

Bangs, J. K. : A Proposal Under Difficulties, a farce. Har- 
per & Bros., New York. Price, 50c. 

Three male, two female characters; setting, a room; cos- 
tumes, ordinary ; time, less than an hour. Suitable for grades 
11-12. (This play is also included in one volume with three 
other farces: The Bicyclers, A Dramatic Evening, and The 
Fatal Message. Price, $1.25.) 

Merington, Marguerite: The "Cranford" Play, in three 
acts, adapted from Elizabeth Gaskell's novel. Duffield & Co., 



306 READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

New York ; also in the Ladies' Home Journal, February, 1901. 
Price, $1.25. Permission may be had to use this play. 

One male, nine female characters ; setting, a room ; costumes, 
old-fashioned but easily arranged ; time, a short evening. Suit- 
able for grades 8-12. 

Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice, adapted by Mrs. 
Steele MacKaye. Duffield & Co., New York. Price, $1.25. 

Ten male, ten female characters; setting, interior and ex- 
terior; costumes, quaint; time, a full evening. Suitable for 
grades 10-12. 

Tennyson, Alfred : The Princess, recast as a drama in five 
acts. Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston. Price, 15c. 

Eight male, four female characters, besides as many male 
and female students, heralds, etc., as desired; settings, inte- 
riors and exteriors; costumes, various, almost demanding the 
services of a costumer ; time, a full evening. This adaptation 
is very good, using the words of the poem throughout. It 
may be given simply in the classroom after studying the poem, 
or it may be presented somewhat elaborately at the theatre. 
Suitable for grades 10-12. 

Gilbert, W. S. : The Princess, a whimsical perversion of 
Tennyson's poem. Samuel French, New York. Price, 15c. 

Twelve male, twenty-one female, and many soldiers, cour- 
tiers, etc.; setting, various but easy to arrange in a theatre; 
costumes, a costumer will probably be needed; time, a full 
evening. This play is an amusing parody and contains con- 
siderable chorus singing, which may be omitted. It would 
be an ambitious undertaking, but Gilbert's fun is always en- 
joyable and he is very successful here in hitting off the weak 
spots of the poem. Suitable for grades 10-12. 



DRAMATICS 307 

Rostand, E.: The Romancers. Walter H. Baker & Co., 
Boston; paper, 25c. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York; 
cloth, 50c. 

Five male, one female character, and several bandits; set- 
ting, a garden ; costumes, pretty ; time, a short evening. This 
is a beautiful out-of-door play, demanding first of all beauty 
of setting and costumes. It can be given indoors. Suitable 
for grades 11-12. 

Phipps, Edmund: King Rene's Daughter, a lyric drama 
in one act. Samuel French, New York. Price, 15c. 

Six male, three female characters; setting, garden and ex- 
terior of a house ; costumes, rich ; time, about one hour. This 
play is in verse. It has a pretty sentiment and may be made 
very beautiful. Suitable for grades 10-12. 

Howells, W. D. : Farces. The first three listed are pub- 
lished by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston; the last four by 
Harper & Brothers, New York. Price, each, 50c. 

These farces require only a few actors, an easily arranged 
setting, ordinary and easily made costumes, and less than 
an hour of time. The clever conversation is more impor- 
tant than the acting. Following are some of the titles : The 
Sleeping-Car, The Parlor-Car, The Elevator, The Mouse Trap, 
The Albany Depot, A Letter of Introduction, and Five o'Clock 
Tea. Suitable for grades 11-12. 

Gilbert, W. S. : Original Plays. Chatto & Windus, Lon- 
don. Price, three volumes, $3.00. 

Several of Gilbert's clever plays — Pygmalion and Galatea, 
The Palace of Truth, Engaged, etc. — have long been popular 
with amateurs. They are full of the same wit that permeates 
the Gilbert & Sullivan operas. Suitable for grade 12 or for 
amateur clubs. 



308 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Goldsmith, Oliver : She Stoops to Conquer. Published in 
many editions. 

Six male, four female characters, and attendants; for the 
setting a stage is required; the costumes should be had from 
a costumer; time, a full evening. Suitable for an ambitious 
commencement play of a high school. 

Sheridan, Eichard B. : The Eivals, and The School for 
Scandal. Published in many editions. 

These two plays are suitable for the commencement plays of 
a high school when a good director is willing to undertake so 
much. 

Dickens, Charles : The Holly Tree Inn, a play in one act, 
adapted by Mrs. Beringer. Samuel French, New York. Price, 
25c. Permission must be obtained from the publisher before 
this play may be used. Charges, $5. 

Four male (the boy's part sometimes taken by a girl), three 
female characters; setting, a room; costumes, everyday; time, 
forty-five minutes. A splendid adaptation of Dickens's well- 
known story. Suitable for grades 9-12. 

Dickens, Charles: The Cricket on the Hearth, in three 
acts. W. H. Baker & Co., Boston. Price, 15c. 

Six male, seven female characters ; setting, easily arranged ; 
costumes, modern; time, two hours. Suitable for grades 7-12. 

Dickens, Charles: Short Plays from Dickens, edited by 
H. B. Browne for the use of amateur and school dramatic 
societies. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Price, $1.00. 

This volume contains twenty sketches, with short introduc- 
tions, descriptions of characters, costumes, etc. Suitable for 
grades 8-12. 

Dickens, Charles: Sketches from his works. The follow- 
ing four books are published by Walter H. Baker & Co., Bos- 
ton: 



DRAMATICS 309 

Bardell vs. Pickwick, in one act. Price, 15c. 

Six male, two female characters ; setting, a court room ; 
costumes, modern; time, thirty minutes. Suitable for grades 
7-12. 

Comic Dialogues from Dickens. Price, 25c. There are 
sixteen selections from the Pickwick Papers, nine from Mar- 
tin Chuzzlewit, seven from Old Curiosity Shop, and others 
from Nicholas Nickleby, Great Expectations, etc., all given 
in the words of Dickens. 

Holiday Dialogues from Dickens. Price, 25c. These selec- 
tions from The Christmas Carol, The Cricket on the Hearth, 
The Battle of Life, etc., are especially good for Christmas 
time. Suitable for grades 6-12. 

Humorous Dialogues from Dickens. Price, 25c. These 
sketches use Dickens's own words. They are taken from Nich- 
olas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Dombey & 
Son, Our Mutual Friend, The Pickwick Papers, etc. Suit- 
able for grades 7-12. 

Little Em'ly, a dramatization of David Copperfield, in four 
acts. The Dramatic Publishing Co., Chicago. Price, 15c. 

Characters, eight male, eight female; settings, interiors 
and exteriors; costumes, exaggerated modern; time, a full 
evening. Suitable for grades 9-12. 

Morton, J. M. : Lend Me Five Shillings, a farce in one 
act. Dramatic Publishing Co., Chicago. Price, 15c. 

Five male, two female characters, plus ladies and gentle- 
men; setting, a room; costumes, fancy evening; time, forty- 
five minutes. An old favorite on the stage. Suitable for 
grades 10-12. 

Shakespeare, William: Following are the plays that are 
usually presented by amateurs. They should hardly be under- 
taken, however, without an experienced leader in charge : As 



310 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

You Like It, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's 
Dream. Sometimes only the fairy scenes or the clown scenes 
are given from the last named play. (See "The Clancy 
Kids.") 

There are many cuttings from the plays. Two suitable for 
school presentation are listed: 

Much Ado About Nothing, arranged in two acts. W. H. 
Baker & Co., Boston. Price, 15c. 

Eight male, three female characters; setting, an easy ex- 
terior ; costumes, adapted ; time, one hour. The cutting is free 
from objectionable incidents and passages. Suitable for 
grades 11-12. 

Julius Cassar, arranged in two acts. W. H. Baker & Co., 
Boston. Price, 15c. 

Ten male, no female characters; setting, the forum; cos- 
tumes, Eomah; time, one hour. The cutting is to make the 
play easier for presentation. Suitable for grades 8-12. 

Gayley, C. M., adapter : The Star of Bethlehem, a miracle 
play of the Nativity. Duffield & Co., New York. Price, $1.25. 
Permission must be obtained to present this play. 

Ten male, three female characters, besides counsellors, etc. ; 
settings, easily arranged; costumes, ancient; time, a short 
evening. This is a Christmas play adapted from the Townsley 
and other old English cycles for the Ben Greet players. It 
would add great interest to any study of the drama before 
Shakespeare. Suitable for grades 10-12. 

Anon: Everyman, a moral play. Duffield & Co., New 
York. Price, $1.00. 

This impressive old morality play, which has been popular- 
ized recently by the Ben Greet players, could be given only 
by a class that had studied the early drama under a scholar. 
Two other books useful for such a class are: 



DEAMATICS 311 

Williams, W. H. : Specimens of the Elizabethan Drama, 
from Lyly to Shirley. Clarendon Press, $1.90. 

Simpson, Percy : Scenes from Old Play Books. Clarendon 
Press. Price, 90c. 

Euripides : The Alcestis. Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston. 
Price, 25c. 

No male, eight female characters, and chorus ; setting, bare ; 
costumes, Greek; time, a short evening. Suitable for grades 
11-12, if they have studied Greek history and the history of 
the drama. 

Sophocles: Antigone. Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston. 
Price, 15c. 

Five male, three female characters ; setting, bare ; costumes, 
Greek; time, one hour. Suitable for grades 11-12, if they 
have studied Greek history and the history of the drama. 

In both these Greek plays girls may easily take the boys' 
parts, or boys the girls'. 



During the past few years a number of dramatic 
readers for schools have been issued. It is certainly- 
better for the children themselves to put the stories 
into dramatic form and then present them; but the 
use of the dramatic readers, some of them well done, 
certainly will add interest and variety when no such 
work has previously been undertaken. Among these 
books are: — 



312 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Noyes and Eay: Little Plays for Little People. Ginn & 
Co., Boston. Price, 35c. 

This contains sixteen stories, most of them well-known, as, 
for example, "Cinderella" and "Little Eed Eiding Hood." 
Suitable for grades 2-3. 

Johnston and Barnnm : A Book of Plays for Little Actors. 
American Book Co., Cincinnati. Price, 30c. 

"Most of the plots for the plays have been borrowed from 
nursery classics." There are also plays for special occasions 
like Washington's Birthday. Suitable for grades 2-3. 

Bryce : The Child-Lore Dramatic Eeacler. Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons, New York. Price, 30c. Suitable for grades 2-4. 

Stevenson: Children's Classics in Dramatic Form. 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. Price, 50c. Suitable for 
grade 4. 

Knight, Marietta : Dramatic Eeader for Grammar Grades. 
American Book Co., Cincinnati. Price, 50c. 

"These dialogues are not plays; they are not intended for 
action, but for reading." Suitable for grades 5-7. 

Dalkeith, Lena : Little Plays. E. P. Dutton & Co., New 
York. Price, 50c. Suitable for grades 3-5. 

Briscoe et al. : Harper's Book of Little Plays. Harper & 
Brothers, New York. Price, 75c. Suitable for grades 5-8. 

St. Nicholas Book of Plays and Operettas. The Century 
Co., New York. Price, $1.00. 

This contains some novel and easily prepared entertain- 
ments. Suitable for grades 4-8. 



DRAMATICS 313 

Mackay, C. D. : House of the Heart and Other Plays for 
Children. Silver Thread and Other Folk Plays for Young 
People. Henry Holt & Co., New York. Price, $1.25 each. 

These plays, which are constructed with great charm, are 
designed for various occasions. Suitable for grades 4-8. 

Merrington, Marguerite: Holiday Plays. Duffield & Co., 
New York. Price, $1.25. 

In this book an experienced dramatist has presented plays 
suitable for Thanksgiving Day, Washington's Birthday, the 
Fourth of July, Lincoln's Birthday, and Memorial Day. 
Suitable for grades 5-8. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
Memoky Work 

In upper grades excellent results may often be se- 
cured in memorizing without making a definite 
assignment regarding it. One teacher reports that, 
after an interesting study of Browning's "Incident 
of the French Camp" and "How They Brought the 
Good News from Ghent to Aix," it was found that 
in each of two successive years more than 90 per 
cent, of the class had learned all of each poem. An- 
other teacher says that she has been successful in 
stimulating memory work by asking at the close of 
the recitation how many could repeat any part of 
the lesson. If the selection was short, it was some- 
times found that a number of children could repeat 
it entire. The encouragement given for such attain- 
ment reacted very pleasantly and effectively on the 
attention given the reading lesson after this plan 
was introduced. 

To insure the poems and prose selections mem- 
orized being permanently fixed in memory, it is nec- 
essary to have them reviewed and rehearsed year 
after year. Some memorize to forget, but anything 
really worth memorizing is worth remembering for 
life. To secure this end the second grade teacher 

314 



MEMORY WORK 3 15 

will have those selections learned the first year re- 
learned; the third grade teacher will do the same 
thing for those learned in the two preceding grades, 
and so on. Repetition alone fixes many experiences. 

Selections for Memorizing 

Fourth Grade 

The Eagle. — Tennyson. 

The Brook. — Tennyson. 

The Clouds. — Sherman. 

Wonderful World. — Band. 

Wishing. — A llingham. 

To the Fringed Gentian. — Bryant. 

Daybreak. — Longfelloiv. 

A Sailor's Song of the Sea. — Cornwall. 

Spring. — Howell. 

April. — Helen Hunt Jackson. 

The Flower Folk.— Bossetti. 

Beautiful Things. — Jane Taylor. 

Fifth Grade 

The Planting of the Apple Tree. — Bryant. 

The Death of the Flowers. — Bryant. 

Landing of the Pilgrims. — Hemans. 

Today. — Carlyle. 

Stand by the Flag. — Wilder. 

April in England. — Browning. 

The Petrified Fern. — Branch. 

The Battle of Waterloo. — Byron. 

A Psalm of Life. — Longfellow. 

The Arrow and the Song. — Longfellow. 

Evening. — Scott. 



316 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Sixth Grade 

Gradatim. — Holland. 

Love of Country, "Breathes there a man." — Scott. 

Concord Hymn. — Emerson. 

Eing Out, Wild Bells. — Tennyson. 

Songs of Labor (Selected). — Whittier. 

Parts from Snow-Storm. — Emerson. 

Parts from Snow-Bound. — Whittier. 

An Incident of the French Camp.— -Browning. 

Abou Ben Adhem. — Hunt. 

For a' That and a' That. — Burns. 

The Builders. — Longfellow. 

The Daffodils. — Wordsworth. 

Seventh Grade 

The Old Year. — Tennyson. 

The Shell. — Tennyson. 

Crossing the Bar. — Tennyson. 

Duty's Leaden Casket. — Lowell. 

The Heritage. — Lowell. 

To a Waterfowl. — Bryant. 

The Chambered Nautilus. — Holmes. 

Passages from Sohrab and Bustum. — Arnold. 

To a Mountain Daisy. — Burns. 

Gettysburg Speech. — Lincoln. 

Preludes to the Vision of Sir Launfal. — Lowell, 

Nolan's Speech. — Hale. 

Eighth Grade 

Captain, My Captain. — Whitman. 
Recessional. — Kipling. 
Old Glory.— Riley. 
Bugle Song. — Tennyson. 



MEMOKY WOKK 317 

The Last Leaf. — Holmes. 

To a Skylark.— Shelley. 

To a Skylark, "Ethereal Minstrel." — Wordsworth. 

The Cloud.— Shelley. 

Some Boohs Containing Suitable Selections 

Poems by Grades. — Gilbert and Harris. (Scribner's.) 
The Child's Calendar Beautiful.— Beeson. (The Burt- 
Terry-Wilson Co.) 

Literary Eeadings. — Curry. (Rand, McNally & Co.) 
Golden Numbers. — Wig gin and Smith. (McClure, Phil- 
lips & Co.) 

Golden Treasury. — Palgrave. (The Macmillan Co.) 

Famous Poems: — Birdsall. (Putnam's.) 
Lyra Heroica. — Henley. (Scribner's.) 
Blue Poetry Book. — Lang. (Longmans, Green & Co.) 
Children's Garland. — Patmore. (Macmillan.) 
Poems Every Child Should Know. — Burt. (Doubleday, 
Page & Co.) 

One Thousand Poems for Children. — Ingpen. (Jacobs.) 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

The Direction of Private Reading 

There are always some girls and boys, especially 
boys, who do not care for reading, and there are 
others who become so infatuated by books that they 
read everything that they can procure. The ' ' read- 
ing craze, " as it has been termed, advances steadily, 
according to Miss Williams, until the twelfth year; 
then, after a rest, it increases sharply to the four- 
teenth year ; and finally, for most people, falls away 
gradually until a plane of habit is found, which en- 
dures in most cases for a lifetime. 

Of course these conclusions, which are made after 
thousands of inquiries, are not true in all cases. So 
much depends on varying elements, such as home 
influences, the encouragement of the teacher, and 
accessibility of books. In one school, for instance, 
the children of the fifth grade, directed by an en- 
thusiastic teacher, did the maximum reading in the 
school, accomplishing the amazing average of thir- 
teen books in four months, besides keeping up good 
lessons! And the decrease of reading in the high 
school is undoubtedly due to the increased difficulty 
and length of lessons. 

318 



THE DIRECTION OF PRIVATE READING 319 

The Pubescent Reading Passion 

President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, 
says of this youthful reading:* 

"The pubescent reading passion is partly the cause and 
partly an effect of the new zest in and docility to the adult 
world and also of the fact the receptive are now and here so 
immeasurably in advance of the creative powers. Now the 
individual transcends his own experience and learns to profit 
by that of others. There is now evolved a penumbral region 
in the soul more or less beyond the reach of all school meth- 
ods, a world of glimpses and hints, and the work here is that 
of the prospector and not of the careful miner. It is the age 
of skipping and sampling, of pressing the keys lightly. What 
is acquired is not examinable but only suggestive. Perhaps 
nothing read now fails to leave its mark. It cannot be orally 
reproduced at call, but on emergency it is at hand for use. 
As Augustine said of God, so the child might say of most of 
his mental content in these psychic areas, 'If you ask me, I 
do not know ; but if you do not ask me, I know very well/ " 

The Need of Direction 

If this reading leaves its mark in such a subtle 
manner — and one can hardly doubt that it does — 
it is certainly the part of wisdom to direct it as 
carefully as possible. Many a boy or girl becomes 
so saturated with stories of wild adventure or of 
sentimentality that it is difficult to introduce read- 
ing which is more substantial. In like manner, the 
weekly and monthly magazines flood the land with 
stories which, although for the most part harmless 

*Hall: Adolescence, II. 474. 



320 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

and in some cases exceedingly good, keep children 
from literature that they should know. The maga- 
zines certainly have supplied a want; but the harm 
comes when the reader so habituates himself to 
reading everything in the magazines, almost all of 
it transitory in its interest and its value, that he 
finds no time for those stories that are world-wide 
in their interest and permanent in value. 

Why Direction Sometimes Fails 

Teachers and parents often resort to the most 
unwise means in order to break up mischievous read- 
ing, or that which brings little or no good. Mere 
advice, threats, and punishment alone are rarely 
effective. Something must be substituted, something 
that will be welcomed and that will effectively re- 
place the other in the reader's interest and affec- 
tions. 

Eecommendations of good reading often fail be- 
cause parents and teachers consult their own adult 
tastes, or, what is in some cases even worse, manuals 
of standard, classic literature. George Eliot's 
"Romola" is undoubtedly a most enjoyable book 
to an adult who likes to read carefully and to think, 
and it doubtless is listed in most manuals of litera- 
ture as a great book; but it would be most unwise 
to send an eager youngster of the fifth grade to it 
for his reading. A brother once, in his ignorance, 
offered his thirteen-year-old sister ten dollars if she 
would read Blackstone's Commentaries! 



THE DIRECTION OF PRIVATE READING 321 

Three Requisites for Wise Direction 

One giving advice must find out first of all what 
lines the child's interest follows; then he must know 
what books will satisfy or direct that interest; and 
finally he must learn how to accomplish the substi- 
tution with some tact. 

The first information, that concerning the child's 
interest, is gained, of course, largely from a knowl- 
edge of the individual child. Informal, apparently 
accidental conversations with him, both about books 
and about what he is doing or wishes to do, often 
give us the information; sometimes a source is what 
another boy or girl says. But, allowing for all indi- 
vidual differences, there are a great many interests 
that are held in common by most boys and others 
by most girls at certain ages. 

What Children Like 

Stories of adventure, for example, are attractive 
to boys (and to girls, too, for that matter) from 
the early grades up through the high school, this 
interest being highest from the sixth to the ninth 
grade. Boys like war stories, too, in about the same 
years ; girls have less interest in war stories, though 
enough to make a recommendation in this field fairly 
safe. Detective stories attract boys most from the 
sixth grade to the ninth ; girls, very rarely. Stories 
of travel are likewise more attractive to boys than 
to girls, having a maximum interest in the upper 
grades and early high school course. Stories of 



322 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

great men and great women are attractive to boys 
and girls respectively at about the same time. Many 
girls will be interested in stories of great men, while 
few boys will even try to read a book about a great 
woman. Interest in history may begin as early as 
the fourth grade and increase throughout the school ; 
but here, even more than elsewhere, much depends 
on the material read. The interest in love stories 
begins about the sixth grade, usually earlier for girls 
than for boys ; the latter, too, are less frank in con- 
fessing this interest.* 

"Through the teens * * * books were chosen * * * 
because recommended, and later because of some special in- 
terest. Girls relied on recommendations more than boys. The 
latter were more guided by reason and the former by senti- 
ment. Nearly three times as many boys in the early teens chose 
books because they were exciting or venturesome. * * * 
Girls chose books more than four times as often because of 
children in them, and more often because they were funny. 
Boys care very little for style, but must have incidents and 
heroes. * * * Girls prefer domestic stories and those 
with characters like themselves and scenes more like those 
with which they are familiar. "f 

The Selection of Boohs 

The second information, what books will feed and 
direct the various interests, can be gained satisfac- 

*These data are taken partly from B. W. Bullock: "Observa- 
tions on Children's Beading," Proceedings of the National Edu- 
cational Association, 1897, pp. 1015-1021. 

fMiss Vostrovsky, quoted by Hall: Adolescence, II. 467. 



THE DIRECTION OF PRIVATE READING 333 

torily only by good taste and wide reading. Much 
help can be had, however, from library and reading 
circle lists. These should not be followed as if they 
were the laws of the Medes and Persians; they 
should merely be suggestive, naming books from 
which those who know the children may select. Nat- 
urally, after a child has begun to read steadily in 
good literature, he needs less careful though no less 
wise directing. 

The Substitution 

One need not expect to substitute "Vanity Fair" 
at once for the ' ' nickel thriller. ' ' At the same time, 
it is not necessary to take too many steps in getting 
out of the bottom lands of taste. A teacher or 
parent should be pretty certain of at least the first 
books that he recommends ; afterwards he may take 
some risks. The book recommended first largely 
determines the child's confidence in one's ability to 
suggest what is good for him. It should be inter- 
esting, even exciting, full of red blood or broad emo- 
tions. It may not be of the highest literary value, 
but it should be wholesome enough and nearly 
enough true to life for even the child to see the 
difference between it and what he has been reading. 

Sometimes the loan of a book, with some such 
remark as, "Here is a book that John likes first 
rate," or "that I enjoyed when I was a boy;" or the 
mere request that it be read ; or the suggestion that 
it will throw light on some period of history, some 



324 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

sport, some pursuit, some part of the world in which 
the boy is interested; or the reading aloud to the 
school of a stirring incident from the book, some- 
thing like the incident of "the man in the red 
sweater," in "The Call of the Wild" — sometimes 
any one of these means will be sufficient. But the 
teacher must know the child that he wishes to guide, 
and adapt his advice accordingly. The fact that the 
recommendation of a book by a schoolmate often 
weighs more than the advice of a teacher may occa- 
sionally be utilized by having some pupil tell of a 
book that he has enjoyed. 

The Recitation on Outside Reading 

To encourage the outside private reading of books, 
the teacher may devote a class period occasionally, 
say once a fortnight or oftener, to an oral reading 
of some interesting passage chosen by the child. He 
is told that on a certain day he may have ten or 
fifteen minutes in which to read to the class some 
very interesting incident from his book; that first 
he must tell, very briefly, so much as the class need 
to know of the story and its characters to under- 
stand the passage read, and that after the reading 
he may, if he choose, tell how the story concludes. 
A private rehearsal will add greatly to the value of 
the exercise at first. 

Of course each child cannot be called on in this 
exercise very frequently — indeed, it is from the best 
pupils that the most gratifying results will be ob- 
tained, so far as oral reading is concerned, and also 



THE DIRECTION OF PRIVATE READING 325 

the most stimulus for the other pupils to read the 
book. But better based criticism can be made on this 
extended recitation than on small units of reading; 
the child is put on his exhibition metal ; he has prac- 
tice, moreover, while presenting the introduction and 
conclusion of his incident, in oral composition, both 
in its details and in its larger aspects of choosing 
and grouping ; his taste in selection of good material 
is tested ; and the other children are stimulated not 
only to emulation of the best, which should be recog- 
nized and generously praised, but also to read the 
books from which the selections are taken. The 
teacher must, of course, before undertaking such an 
exercise, throw away any notion that the end and 
aim of his work is to "cover" any specified reading 
book. This device is for teaching reading and stimu- 
lating interest in books, which, while being read, 
will likewise teach reading. 

President Hall declares that what is acquired from 
this reading is not examinable. In the sense that 
no one can find out by examination exactly what has 
been gained from this reading, which should be done 
with all the rapidity at the command of the child, 
he is undoubtedly right. But if the teacher can by 
some means find out whether the child has got the 
essential points of the book and help him to an ap- 
preciation of some of the finer points which may be 
easily overlooked, he is rendering a distinct service 
and is helping to form good habits for all future 
reading. This sort of test is best held orally, not 
as an examination but as an informal talk about the 



326 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

book. Such questions as "What did you think of 
Harvey when you first met him in ' Captains Cour- 
ageous'?" "Why did you like Baloo in 'The Jungle 
Book"?" "What was the one thing that did most 
to make you like Rab in Dr. Brown's story?" "Why 
could M'Adam and his son, in 'Bob Son of Battle,' 
never understand each other 1 ' ' — such questions open 
the way for an easy talk in which the teacher can 
point out such excellences as he himself enjoyed 
and can also draw out the child to talk freely and 
frankly about his own likes and dislikes. 

The Ownership of Books 

Nowadays every school has or is accumulating 
some sort of library. But at the same time the 
private ownership of books should be encouraged; 
nothing can quite take its place. In the words of 
Dr. Beyer: 

"Every youth should have his or her own library, which, 
however small, should be select. To seal some knowledge of 
their content with the delightful sense of ownership helps to 
preserve the apparatus of culture, keeps green early mem- 
ories, or makes one of the best of tangible mementoes of pa- 
rental care and love." 

Some Good Reading 

It is hardly in place here to give a catalogue of 
books for a model school library; but appended is 
a list of good books arranged with an eye to the 
ease and avidity with which a boy addicted to poor 
reading or to none will enjoy them. It will suggest 



THE DIRECTION OF PRIVATE READING 327 

the kind of hearty, wholesome book of which we have 
been speaking. Children vary marvelously in taste 
and in the rate of its improvement; but few boys 
or girls will be inclined, after having enjoyed these 
or similar books, to revert to the poorer kind; that 
is, if good reading is kept accessible to them. 

Stevenson: Treasure Island. 

Poe: Selected Tales, such as The Gold Bug, The Black 
Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The 
Murders of the Sue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget. 

Conan Doyle : Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Memoirs of 
Sherlock Holmes. 

Kipling: Captains Courageous. 

Barbour: The Quarter Back, Behind the Line, etc. 

Bennett: Master Skylark, Barnaby Lee. 

Defoe: Eobinson Crusoe. 

Swift: Gulliver's Travels to Lilliput and Brobdignag. 

Pyle: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, The Story 
of King Arthur and His Knights, The Story of the Champions 
of the Round Table, etc. 

London: The Call of the Wild, White Fang. 

Davis: The Bar Sinister. 

Brown: Rab and His Friends. 

Kipling: The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book. 

Seton: Wild Animals I Have Known, etc. 

Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures 
of Huckleberry Finn. 

Stevenson: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, St. Ives, Kidnapped, 
David Balfour. 

Smith: Colonel Carter of Cartersville. 

Tarhington: Monsieur Beaucaire. 

Harland: The Cardinal's Snuff -Box. 



328 BEADING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Buskin: The King of the Golden Rwer. 
Holmes: Elsie Venner. 

Hawthorne: The House of the Seven Gables. 
Cooper: The Pilot, The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mo- 
hicans. 

Scott: Ivanhoe, Kenilworth, Kob Roy, The Talisman. 



INDEX 



Abacus, 25. 

Aerology, 31. 

Adams, 38. 

Adolescence, 142-144. 

A First Lesson in Reading, 52- 

54. 
Allusions, 200. 
Alphabet, 29-31, 173, 174. 
American Voices, 169. 
Appendices, 183. 
Apperceptive Reading, 16. 
Articulation, Exercises for, 163, 
164, 167. 

Faulty, 150-154. 
Assignment, 276-288. 

Characteristics of Good, 278, 
281. 

For Preparation, 283. 

Importance of, 287, 288. 

Material of, 288. 

Purpose of, 277. 

Test of, 282. 

Time of, 286, 287. 
Audience and Speaker, 298. 
Autocrat Papers, 271, 272. 

Bacon, quoted, 19. 
Bagley, quoted, 283. 
Baldwin, quoted, 19. 
Balliet, quoted, 63. 
Basedow, quoted, 25. 
Blaisdell, quoted, 98. 
Blake, 28. 
Books, Bad, 11, 12. 

Ownership of, 325. 

Private Reading, 326, 327. 

We Should Read, 22. 
Brandes on Reading, quoted, 20, 

23. 
Breathing Exercises, 161-163. 



Browning's "How They 

Brought the Good News, ' ' 242- 
244. 

Bryant, Sara Cone, quoted, 97, 
98. 

Bullock, 321. 

Catechism, 26. 

Changing Voice, 155, 156. 

Children's Interests, 26, 320, 
321. 

Chriss-cross-row, 25. 

Coleridge, quoted, 131. 

Collyer, quoted, 11. 

Comenius, 32. 

Conduct and Dramatics, 93. 

Connotation, 187-189, 218-219. 

Connotative Reading, 16, 17. 

Consonant Sounds, 158, 159. 

Consonants, Clipping of, 150. 

Contrast, 201-202, 218-219. 

Constructive Work, 50, 120-127. 

Correction of Language Mis- 
takes, 96, 156. 

Correlation, 33. 

Criticism, 147, 148, 209, 273. 

Definition, 178-180. 
Denotative Reading, 16, 17. 
De Quincey, 15. 
Dentition, 155, 156. 
Diacritical Marks, 79. 
Dialogue Reading, 102. 
Dictionary, 173-185. 
Dictionary Habits, 142, 183, 184. 
Discrimination, 240. 
Dramatic Play, 94. 
Dramatic Reading, 96, 98-102, 
290, 291. 



329 



330 



INDEX 



Dramatics, 93-95. 

Justification of, 293, 294. 

Simplest Form of, 290. 

Social Value of, 93. 

Stories for, 103, 104. 

Time for, 96. 
Drawing and Beading, 119, 120. 
Drill, 57, 70, 71, 156, 157. 
Drills, Character of Word, 71. 

Devices for, 72-74. 

Ear, 80, 81. 

Ear and Lip, 82, 83. 

Eye and Ear, 84, 85. 

Educational Extremes, 128. 

Eliot, 129. 

Emotion, Directing and Refin- 

ing, 220-222. 
Etymology, 181, 182. 
Expression, 50. 
Eye-mindedness, 62. 
Eye-movements, 49. 

Games for Silent Reading, 68, 

69. 
Garlick, quoted, 48, 49. 
Gesturing, 33. 
Grafer, 33. 
Grammar and Good Usage, 181. 

Habit, 71, 142. 

Hall, quoted, 141, 316. 

Harris, quoted, 38. 

Hervey, quoted, 133. 

Home Work, 82, 110. 

Hornbook, 26. 

Huey, quoted, 45, 129, 256, 262. 

Ickelsamer, 32. 

Ideals, Setting up, 40, 41. 

Inhibition, 105. 

Imagery, 111-116, 195-199, 227, 

251-252. 
Images, Differences in, 197-199. 
Imagination, 36, 37. 
Imitation, 37-40. 
Importance of Silent Eeading, 

264-267. 
Incentives, 132. 
Inflection, 39, 40. 



Jacotot, 33. 
Jameson, 203. 
Judgment, 239. 

Keagy, 28. 

King John and the Abbot, 99, 

100. 
Kingsley's "Theseus," 230-233. 
Koopman, quoted, 9. 

Locke, quoted, 18. 

Lowell, quoted, 10. 

Lisping, 154, 155. 

Literature, Composition of, 189. 

and Eeading, 10, 186, 187. 

Emotional Element in, 188. 

of Knowledge, 15. 

of Power, 15. 

Preparation, 213-217, 234. 

Presentation, 217, 234-235. 

Questions on, 210-211, 216ff., 
235ff., 253ff. 

Recall, 222-224. 

Relating to Class, 217-218. 

References, 200, 250. 

Teacher, Need of, 205-207. 
Dangers from, 207-209. 

Translation of, 199. 
Literature and Experience, 192- 

194. 
Literary Appreciation, 190. 

Mackenzie, quoted, 151. 
Magazine Reading, 319. 
McGuffey Series, 29. 
McMurry, quoted, 57, 58. 
Memory Work, 128-139, 314-317. 

Conditions for, 134. 

How to Secure, 132, 133. 

Importance of, 130. 

Selections for, 137-339, 315- 
317. 

Steps in, 136, 137. 
Method, Alphabetic, 31, 34. 

Analytic-Synthetic, 33, 34. 

Combination, 34, 35. 

Phonic, 34. 

Sentence, 35. 

Word, 35. 
Mouthing, 298. 



INDEX 



331 



Murdoek, 161. 

Murray, 28. 

Myths and Legends, 225-226. 

Nascent Periods, 140-143; 317, 

318. 
New England Primer, 26. 

Old Pipes and the Dryad, 120, 

127. 
Oral Eeading, 16-19. 

Conditions for, 55-56. 

Time to Begin, 55. 

Type Lesson in, 58-61. 

Pace in Reading, 13, 14. 
Perception Cards, 72. 
Perception Units, 256, 257. 
Pestalozzian Primer, 28. 
Phonics, 32-34, 79-91, 177. 

Advantages of, 89, 91. 

Caution for, 90. 

and Reading, 86, 87. 

Formal Drills in, 79. 

Groups, 87, 88. 
Physical Activity, 52. 
Physical Exercises, 81. 
Pictorial Reading, 29-32. 
Pictures, Bibliography of, 116- 
119. 

Evolution of, 30. 

in the Book, 114-116. 

Mental, 111-114. 

Misuse of, 115, 116. 

Use of, 115. 
Pictures and Imagery, 115, 116. 
Picture Work, 109. 
Pierpont, 28. 
Play, 80, 82. 

Plays for Dramatizing, 302-313. 
Poor Position, 146. 
Position of Book, 145. 

in Reading, 145-147. 
Practical Suggestions, 19, 20, 57. 
Private Help, 274. 
Private Reading, Books for, 326, 
327. 

Bad Habits of, 262. 
Pronunciation, 51, 161; 176-178. 
Proportionate Values, 273, 274. 



Public Performances, 294, 295. 
Pupils as Eeading Models, 43. 
Pure Tones, 157. 
Purpose of Primary Read'ng, 47. 

48. 
Putnam Series, 28. 
Puzzle Instinct, 70. 

Qualities of Primary Material, 

46, 47. 
Qualities of Primary Teacher, 

44. 
Quantz, 256. 
Readers, Agricultural, 28. 

Contents of Primary, 45, 46. 

Historical, 28. 

Series of, 28, 29. 
Reading, Adaptation to Sexes, 
320-323. 

and Examination, 324. 

and Literature, 211-212. 

Awakening Interest in, 323. 

Beginning of, 29. 

Connotative, 16, 17. 

Correction of, 42. 

Craze for, 317-318. 

Denotative, 16, 17. 

Development through, 12, 13. 

Dramatic, 93. 

Essentials in Primary, 49, 50. 

Example in, 41, 42. 

Extensive, 227-228. 

First Lesson in, 52-54. 

Home, 229-230. 

Importance of, IS. 

Interest in, 47. 

Mechanics of, 48. 

Necessity for, 24, 95. 

Pace in, 13, 14, 260. 

Pictorial, 29-32. 

Private, 274. 

Representative, 16. 

Sight, 255-258. 

Specialization in, 28. 

Spontaneity in, 29. 

The Teacher, 41-44. 

Time Element in, 56, 194. 
Reading and Spelling, 286. 
Reading and Thinking, 18. 
Bebus-stage, 30. 



332 



INDEX 



Beeitations on Private Beading, 

314-324. 
Behearsals, 296-297. 
Beyer, 325. 
Ehythm, 245. 
Eip Van Winkle, outline, 270. 

Scenery, 301. 
Scudder, quoted, 37. 
Schulte, 25. 
Seat Work, 61, 78. 

Devices for, 108-110. 

Kinds of, 108. 

Purpose of, 61, 106, 107. 

Time for, 107. 
Setting, 248. 

Silent Beading, 16, 62-69, 259- 
267 

Economy of, 64. 

Games for, 68, 69. 

Importance of, 264-267. 

Purpose of, 62-64. 

Eelation to Oral, 55, 62. 

Eelation to Printed Symbol, 
63. 

Type Lesson in, 65-68. 
Slurring, 159, 160. 
Smith, quoted, 129. 
Spaulding, quoted, 260, 261, 277, 

278, 284. 
Speaker and Audience, 298. 
Speech, Cause of Poor, 149, 152, 

153. 
Spelling and Beading, 285, 286. 
Stammering, 154, 155. 
Staging a Play, 299-301. 
Stephani, 33. 
Stevenson's "Marching Song," 

214. 



Swinton series, 29. 
Syllabication, 175, 176. 
Symbols, 49. 
Synonyms, 180. 
Synopses, 270-272. 
Text-Books, in Beading, 24. 

Material for, 24. 
Thinking and Beading, 18. 
Time to Use Dictionary, 173. 
The Cat and the Birds, story, 

101, 102. 
Tone and Inflection, 39, 40. 
Tongua Twisters, 165-167. 
Training in Interpretation, 57, 

58. 
Transparency of Language, 64. 
Try-Another-Sound Method, 89. 
Typical First Lesson, 52-54. 

Units in Beading, 266-267. 

Van Dyke, quoted, 17. 
Variation in Beaders, 192-194. 
Verbalizing, 105. 
Visualization, 95. 
Vocal-Motor Centers, 64. 
Voice, 168-172; 297, 298. 
Voice and Dramatics, 94. 
Vowel Sounds, 157, 158. 

Waste in School Work, 105. 
Webster Books, 27. 
What to Memorize, 131, 133. 
Worcester Series, 28. 
Word Drills, 11, 75-77. 
Word Method, 28, 32, 35. 
Word Study, 51, 52. 
Writing-reading Method, 32. 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 

By ALBERT SALISBURY, Ph. D. 

President of the Whitewater State Normal School, author of 
' The Theory of Teaching," etc. 

Cloth, 12mo., 196 pages, $1.00 

This book represents the fruits of a lifetime spent in the schools 
and in the training of teachers. School conditions have changed 
greatly in recent years, and books on school economy which were 
excellent a few years ago are now antiquated. Much more is 
demanded of the teacher than formerly. He has, in fact, become 
an official of the state, with larger functions and a greater need 
for intelligence concerning those functions than the old-time 
pedagog. 

While endeavoring to recognize this newer conception of the 
teacher's office, and the greater burden which it imposes, it has 
been the desire of the author to make a small book rather than a 
bulky one, excluding padding and time-honored common-place. 
The book is intended to serve the needs of young teachers and 
those in preparation for the work, and clearness has been aimed 
at rather than profundity. 

Testimonials 

Frank A. Weld, Pres. State Normal School, Moorhead, Minnesota 

"1 have been reading Salisbury's 'School Management' with great interest. 
It is a stimulating book and should find its way into many Normal schools." 

Dr. A. E. Winship, Boston, Mass. 

"1 have spent more time on 'School Management' than I intended, because 
1 have enjoyed it more than I expected to. It is in the fullest sense a notable 
book. It gives what is needed in the least space, in the best spirit, and in a 
most enjoyable style. I am charmed with it." 

Charles A. Wagner, Dept. of Methods, S. N. S., West Chester, Pa. 

"I have thoroughly enjoyed the sane views, the practical suggestions, and 
the vigorous treatment and language of Dr. Salisbury's 'School Management.' 
The book includes all the necessary new features, and omits quite as wisely as 
it includes. It is right in size, covers the necessary ground, and occupies safe 
and sane positions." 

Wisconsin Journal of Education, Madison, Wisconsin. 

"A long life in the schoolroom as a trainer of teachers and a man who has 
kept pace with educational progress. President Salisbury has written a practical 
book with little theory and every paragraph driving home principles for the safe 
guidance of teachers. His vigorous style, his coming-to-the-point-quick man- 
ner of writing makes 'School Management" a volume full of meatand a most 
valuable addition to the present literature on this important subject." 

Sent postpaid to any address on receipt of price. 
Libera? discount to classes. 

ROW, PETERSON & CO., Publishers 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



Robbins & Row's 

ESSENTIAL STUDIES IN ENGLISH 

Book I, Language, grades 4, 5 and 6, $0.45 
Book II, Grammar and Composition, 

grades 7 and 8 60 

These language books have been on the market 
only a few years and they are already used in the 
model departments of more Normal schools than any 
other series. Why? Because: 

1. Book I has better language material, and 
Book II contains simpler and more teachable technical 
grammar than any similar books on the market. 

2. It is the only series that defers technical gram- 
mar to the seventh and eighth grades. 



What They Say 



Miss Jean Gowdy, Principal of the Logan School. Minneapolis, says: 
"We are doing fine work with your grammars. I have never seen our classes 
in such good condition." 

L. P. Benezet, Superintendent of Schools, La Crosse, Wis., says: 
"I find the pupils are delighted with the books and take an interest in their 
language work which they never felt before. We are getting results." 

Gertrude Longenecker, Model Dept., S. ?<I. S., Kirksville, Mo. 
"We like your 'Essential Studies in English Grammar' very much." 

E. O. Jones, Superintendent of Schools, Kirksville, Mo. 

"We are using your 'Robbins and Row' Grammar and think it the best we 
have ever had." 

N. M. Graham, Superintendent of Schools, South Omaha, Neb. 

"It is putting it mildly to say that we are very much delighted with results." 

C. L. Van Cleve, late Superintendent of Schools, Toledo, Ohio. 

"Our experience has justified fully the choice of the book. The teachers 
are entirely satisfied. My personal opinion is that for freshness and teach- 
ability the books are the best that I have known." 

Are you getting results ? If not, why not give this series a trial ? 
Write to 

ROW, PETERSON & CO., Publishers 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



The Reading-Literature 
Series 

By HARRIETTE T. TREADWELL and MARGARET FREE 

Illustrated by Frederick Richardson 

The Primer 

Contains nine complete Nursery Classics, 96 three- 
color illustrations, and only 208 different words used. 

It is illustrated by a master artist. 

It is printed throughout in three colors. 

It makes use of complete nursery classics only. 

It is the only basal primer whose reading material 
complies with the three essentials of good reading for 
children, namely: 

1. Action in close sequence. 

2. Familiar images tinged with mystery. 

3. Some degree of repetition. 

Testimonials 

W. S. Dearmont, president State Norma? School, Cape Girardeau, 94o. "It 
is distinctly superior to anything of the kind that I have seen." 

Lizzie A. Whitaker, principal E. Madison School, Cleveland. Ohie. "Charm- 
ing ! Subject-matter and illustrations are superior to anything 1 have ever seen. 

Alice L. Harris, assistant superintendent, \Vorcester, Mass. "It excels both 
as a beginner's book in reading— and as a child's story book." 



The Reading-Literature First Reader follows the plan of the 
Primer, and is of equal excellence. It contains 144 pages, 13 
complete folk tales and many Mother Goose and other nursery 
rhymes — with 58 illustrations, printed in three colors throughout. 

The Primer sent postpaid for 32 cents 
The First Reader, for . . 36 cents 
The Second Reader, for . 40 cents 
The Third to Sixth Readers follow 

Liberal Discounts to classes 

ROW, PETERSON & CO., Publishers 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



Price List of Publications 




Essential Studies in English, Bobbins and Bow. 




Book I, Language, 294 pp 


$0.45 


Book II, Grammar and Composition, 356 pp. 


.60 


Practical English, A. C. Scott, 208 pp 


.65 


Manual of the Principles of English 






.10 


Exercises in English Form and Diction, for 




Study and Practice, Fansler and Fansler... 


.60 


The National Speller, C. B. Frazier 


.20 




.50 


Elementary Agriculture with Practical 




Arithmetic, Hatch and Easelwood 


.60 


The Educational Meaning of Manual Arts and 




Industries, B. K. Bow, 250 pp 


1.25 
1.10 




Principles of Teaching, N. A. Harvey, 450 pp.. 


1.25 


The Theory of Teaching and Elementary 






1.25 


Beading in Public Schools, Thomas H. Briggs 






1.25 


The Personality of the Teacher, McKenny 


1.00 




1.00 


Index to Short Stories, Salisbury and Beckwiih. . 


.50 




.45 


The Reading Literature Primer, Free and Tread- 






.32 
.36 






.40 




.15 


Fillers of all kinds for same 


.10 
.05 




Row, Peterson & Company 




623 South Wabash Avenue - Ch 


cago 



JUN 5 1911 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
Ill* 5 1911 



